





' 



• 



SO 



/• 



'p 



:- -•/•<' 



/ ' 




Patrician and Plebeian 
in Virginia 

or the Origin and Development of the 
Social Classes of the Old Dominion 



BY 

THOMAS J. WERTENBAKER, M. A. 



A DISSERTATION 

Presented to the Faculty of the University of Virginia 

as a Part of the Requirements for the Degree 

of Doctor of Philosophy 



Published by the Author 



The Michie Company, Printers 

Charlottesville, Va. 

1910 






Copyright 1910 

BY 

Thomas J. Wertenbaker 



431ft Mrs. ?. J. JfarbK, Jr. Msj 2#< 19 £ 



Dedicated to H. R. W. 



PREFACE 

The origin of the aristocracy of colonial 
Virginia is a subject which has caused much 
controversy among students of the history of 
the Old Dominion. It was for many years the 
general belief that the leading planters were 
the descendants of English families of high 
rank, and that their aristocratic instincts were 
their birth-right, the heritage left them by 
noble ancestors. Others have maintained that 
the best families of Virginia came from the 
great English middle class, and the evidences 
upon the debated question which have been 
unearthed in recent years, tend to confirm 
this view. The author's own studies have 
led him to the conclusion that but few men 
of rank ever came to the "wilderness of Vir- 
ginia," and that the planters were in most 
cases the descendants of merchant ancestors. 
With this as a basis he has sought to point 
out the operation of the economic, social and 
political forces that operated upon the colo- 
nists and instilled into them those instincts of 
chivalry and of pride that were so pronounced 
at the time of the Revolution. 



vi PREFACE 

The Second Part, devoted to the middle 
class, dwells upon the immigration of free 
families of humble means to Virginia and the 
part they played in the colony's upbuilding. 
Much space is given to the indentured serv- 
ants, their numbers and character, and the 
extent to which they survived and entered 
into the middle class which was forming in 
the 17th century. 

In conclusion it only remains for the author 
to express his appreciation of the kindness of 
those who have aided him in his work. He 
wishes especially to acknowledge the services 
rendered by Dr. R. H. Dabney, of the Univer- 
sity of Virginia; by Mr. Charles Puryear, of 
the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical Col- 
lege; by Mr. J. S. Patton, Librarian of the 
University of Virginia; by Mr. P. L. Wind- 
sor, formerly Librarian of the University of 
Texas; by Dr. H. R. Mcllwaine, Virginia 
State Librarian; and by Mr. William Clayton- 
Torrence, of Richmond, Virginia. 

Thomas J. Wertenbaker. 
Charlottesville, Va. 

March 8, ipio. 



PART ONE 

The Aristocracy 

r I "HE aristocratic character of Virginia so- 
-*- cietywas the result of development within 
the colony. It proceeded from economic, polit- 
ical and social causes. On its economic side it 
was built up by the system of large plantations, 
by the necessity for indentured or slave labor, by 
the direct trade with England ; politically it was 
engendered by the lack of a vigorous middle 
class in the first half of the 17th century, and 
was sustained by the method of appointment to 
office; on its social side it was fostered by the 
increasing wealth of the planters and by the 
ideal of the English gentleman. 

It will be necessary, in explaining this de- 
velopment, to determine the origin of the men 
that composed this aristocracy; for it will be 
impossible to understand the action of the 
forces which prevailed in Virginia during the 
colonial period unless we have a knowledge of 



2 THE ARISTOCRACY 

the material upon which they worked. Much 
error has prevailed upon this subject. It was 
for years the general belief, and is still the be- 
lief of many, that the wealthy families, whose 
culture, elegance and power added such luster 
to Virginia in the 18th century, were the de- 
scendants of cavalier or aristocratic settlers. It 
was so easy to account for the noble nature of 
a Randolph, a Lee or a Mason by nobleness of 
descent, that careful investigation was consid- 
ered unnecessary, and heredity was accepted as 
a sufficient explanation of the existence and 
characteristics of the Virginia aristocracy. 

We shall attempt to show that this view is 
erroneous. Recent investigation in Virginia 
history has made it possible to determine with 
some degree of accuracy the origin of the aris- 
tocracy. Yet the mixed character of the set- 
tlers, and the long period of time over which 
immigration to the colony continued make the 
problem difficult of accurate solution, and the 
chances of error innumerable. Out of the mass 
of evidence, however, three facts may be es- 
tablished beyond controversy, that but few men 
of high social rank in England established fam- 
ilies in Virginia; that the larger part of the 



THE ARISTOCRACY 3 

aristocracy of the colony came directly from 
merchant ancestors ; that the leading planters of 
the 17th century were mercantile in instinct 
and unlike the English aristocrat of the same 
period. 

Much confusion has resulted from the as- 
sumption, so common with Southern writers, 
that the English Cavaliers were all of distin- 
guished lineage or of high social rank. The 
word "Cavalier," as used at the time of Charles 
I, denoted not a cast, or a distinct class of peo- 
ple, but a political party. It is true that the 
majority of the gentry supported the king in 
the civil war, and that the main reliance of Par- 
liament lay in the small landowners and the 
merchants, but there were many men of humble 
origin that fought with the royalist party and 
many aristocrats that joined the party of the 
people. Amongst the enemies of the king were 
the Earls of Bedford, Warwick, Manchester 
and Essex, while many leaders of the Round- 
heads such as Pym, Cromwell and Hampden 
were of gentle blood. Thus the fact that a 
man was Cavalier or Roundhead proved noth- 
ing as to his social rank or his lineage. 1 

No less misleading has been the conception 

1 Fiske, Old Va. and Her Neighbors, Vol. II, p. 12. 



4 THE ARISTOCRACY 

that in Great Britain there existed during the 
17th century distinct orders of society, similar 
to those of France or Spain at the same period. 
Many have imagined the English nobility a 
class sharply and definitely separated from the 
commonalty, and forming a distinct upper 
stratum of society. In point of fact no sharp 
line of social demarkation can be drawn be- 
tween the peerage and the common people. 
For in England, even in the days of the 
Plantagenets, the younger sons of the nobles 
did not succeed to their fathers' rank, but sank 
to the gentry class, or at most became 
"knights." They usually married beneath the 
rank of their fathers and thus formed a link 
binding the nobility to the commons of the 
country. Often the sons and brothers of earls 
were sent to Parliament as representatives of 
the shires, and as such sat side by side with 
shopkeepers and artisans from the towns. It 
is this circumstance that explains why so many 
middle-class Englishmen of the present day can 
trace back their lineage to the greatest and 
noblest houses of the kingdom. The healthy 
political development which has been such a 
blessing to the English nation is due in no small 



THE ARISTOCRACY 5 

measure to the lack of anything like caste in 
British society. 

These facts help to explain much in the 
origin of the Virginia aristocracy that has only 
too often been misunderstood. They make evi- 
dent the error of presuming that many persons 
of gentle blood came to Virginia because there 
was an immigration of so called Cavaliers, or 
because certain families in the colony could 
trace back their ancestry to noble English 
houses. 

Immigration to Virginia during the seven- 
teen years after the founding of Jamestown 
was different in character from that of any suc- 
ceeding period. The London Company in its 
efforts to send to the colony desirable settlers 
induced a number of men of good family and 
education to venture across the ocean to seek 
their fortunes in the New World. Since the 
Company numbered among its stockholders 
some of the greatest noblemen of the time, it 
could easily arouse in the influential social 
classes extraordinary interest in Virginia. It 
is due largely to this fact that among the first 
settlers are to be found so many that are en- 
titled to be called gentlemen. 



6 THE ARISTOCRACY 

Moreover, the true nature of the task that 
confronted the immigrants to the wilds of 
America was little understood in England at 
this time. Those unhappy gentlemen that 
sailed upon the Discovery, the Godspeed and 
the Susan Constant hoped to find in Virginia 
another Mexico or Peru and to gain there 
wealth as great as had fallen to the lot of 
Cortez or of Pizarro. Had they known that 
the riches of the land they were approaching 
could be obtained only by long years of toil and 
sweat, of danger and hardship, they would 
hardly have left their homes in England. 
That the First Supply took with them a per- 
fumer and six tailors shows how utterly un- 
suited they were to the task of planting a new 
colony. Many, doubtless, were men of ruined 
fortune, who sought to find in the New World 
a rapid road to wealth. When it became 
known in England that gold mines were not 
to be found in Virginia and that wealth could 
be had only by the sweat of the brow, these 
spendthrift gentlemen ceased coming to the 
colony. 

It is true, however, that the proportion of 
those officially termed "gentlemen" that sailed 



THE ARISTOCRACY 7 

with the early expeditions to Jamestown is 
surprisingly large. Of the settlers of 1607, 
out of one hundred and five men, thirty-five 
were called gentlemen. 2 The First Supply, 
which arrived in 1608, contained thirty-three 
gentlemen out of one hundred and twenty per- 
sons. 3 Captain John Smith declared these men 
were worthless in character, more fitted "to 
spoyle a commonwealth than to begin or main- 
tain one," and that those that came with them 
as "laborers" were really footmen in attend- 
ance upon their masters. In the Second Supply 
came twenty-eight gentlemen in a total com- 
pany of seventy. 4 The conduct of those of the 
Third Supply shows them to have been similar 
in character to their predecessors. Smith calls 
them a "lewd company," among them "many 
unruly gallants packed thither by their friends 
to escape il destinies." 5 These men, however, 
made practically no imprint upon the character 
of the population of the colony; for by far the 
larger part of them perished miserably within 
a few months after their arrival. Of the five 

l Nar. of Early Va., p. 125. 

3 Ibid, pp. 140-141. 

4 Ibid, pp. 159-160. 
"Ibid, p. 192. 



8 THE ARISTOCRACY 

hundred persons alive in Virginia in October, 
1609, all but sixty had died by May of the fol- 
lowing year. 6 

As years went by, this influx of dissipated 
gentlemen began to wane. It could not be 
concealed in England that the early settlers had 
perished of starvation, disease and the toma- 
hawk, and those that had been led to believe 
that Virginia was an Eldorado, turned with a 
shudder from the true picture of suffering and 
death told them by those that returned from 
the colony. Moreover, the London Company 
soon learned that no profit was to be expected 
from a colony settled by dissipated gentlemen, 
and began to send over persons more suited for 
the rough tasks of clearing woods, building 
huts and planting corn. Their immigrant ves- 

6 Fiske, Old Va. and Her Neighbors, Vol. I, p. 
154. The facts here presented form a complete 
refutation of the assertion, so frequently repeated 
by Northern historians, that the Virginia aristocracy 
had its origin in this immigration of dissipated and 
worthless gentlemen. The settlers of 1607, 160S 
and 1609 were almost entirely swept out of exist- 
ence, and not one in fifty of these "gallants" sur- 
vived to found families. Most of the leading plant- 
ers of Virginia came from later immigrants, men 
of humbler rank, but of far more sterling qualities 
than the adventurers of Smith's day. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 9 

sels were now filled with laborers, artisans, 
tradesmen, apprentices and indentured serv- 
ants. It is doubtless true that occasionally gen- 
tlemen continued to arrive in Virginia even 
during the last years of the Company's rule, 
yet their number must have been very small 
indeed. When, in 1624, James I took from the 
London Company its charter, the colony con- 
tained few others than indentured servants and 
freemen of humble origin and means. In 1623 
several of the planters, in answering charges 
that had been brought against the colony by a 
certain Captain Nathaniel Butler, said that the 
inhabitants were chiefly laboring men. 7 

With the downfall of the London Company 
one influence which had tended to send to Vir- 
ginia persons of good social standing ceased to 
exist. The personal interest of those noblemen 
that had owned stock in the enterprise was no 
longer exerted to obtain a desirable class of set- 
tlers, and economic forces alone now deter- 
mined the character of those that established 
themselves in Virginia. During the remainder 
of the 17th century it was the profit that could 
be obtained from the planting of tobacco that 

' Nar. of Early Va., p. 415. 



10 THE ARISTOCRACY 

brought the most desirable class of settlers to 
the colony. It is true, however, that dissipated 
and spendthrift gentlemen still came over at 
times, seeking in Virginia a refuge from cred- 
itors, or expecting amid the unsettled condi- 
tions of a new country to obtain license for 
their excesses. It was this element of the pop- 
ulation, doubtless, that the Dutch trader De 
Vries referred to when he asserted that some 
of the planters were inveterate gamblers, even 
staking their servants. 8 Such a character was 
Captain Stone, whom DeVries met at the home 
of Governor Harvey. This man was related 
to families of good standing in England, but 
strutted, was lewd, swore horribly and was 
guilty of shameless carousals wherever he went. 
While in New Amsterdam he entered upon a 
drinking bout with Governor Von Twiller, and 
stole a vessel of Plymouth. In Massachusetts 
he called Roger Ludlow a just ass, and later, 
having been detected in other crimes, was 
forced to flee from the colony. Beyond doubt 
men similar to Stone were to be found in Vir- 
ginia during the first half of the 17th century, 

8 Neill, Va. Carolorum. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 1 1 

but they became rarer and rarer as time 
went on. 9 

How few men of good social standing there 
were in the colony in this period is shown by 
the number of important positions filled by un- 
educated persons of humble origin and rank. 
The evidence is conclusive that on many oc- 
casions indentured servants that had served 
their term of bondage and had acquired prop- 
erty were elected by the people to represent 
them in the House of Burgesses. This is 
notably true of the first half of the 17th cen- 
tury, when the government was largely in the 
hands of a few leading planters, and when 
pressure from above could influence elections 
very decidedly. Had there been many men of 
ability or rank to select from, these Plebeians 
would never have found a place in the Assem- 
bly of the colony. The author of Virginia's 
Cure stated that the burgesses were "usuall 
such as went over as servants thither," and al- 
though this is doubtless an exaggeration, it 
shows that there must have been in the As- 
semblies many men of humble extraction. In 
the case of some of the burgesses, it has been 

9 Ibid. 



12 THE ARISTOCRACY 

shown definitely that they came to Virginia as 
servants. Thus William Popleton was for- 
merly the servant of John Davies ; Richard 
Townsend was in 1620 the servant of Dr. 
Potts; William Bentley arrived in the colony 
in 1624 as a hired man. All three of these men 
were burgesses. 10 The preacher, William Gat- 
ford, testified that persons of mean extraction 
had filled places of importance and trust. 11 
Governor Berkeley, stated in 1651 while ad- 
dressing the Assembly, that hundreds of ex- 
amples testified to the fact that no man in the 
colony was denied the opportunity to acquire 
both honor and wealth. At times men of 
humble origin became so influential that they 
obtained seats in the Council, the most exclusive 
and powerful body in the colony. Thus Wil- 
liam Pearce, who came over in the days of the 
Company as a poor settler, was a Councilor in 
1632, and was before his death one of the 
wealthiest and most powerful men in the col- 
ony. 12 In 1635 we find in the Council John 
Brewer, formerly a grocer of London. 13 Mal- 

10 Ibid. 

11 Ibid. 

12 Ibid. 

13 Va. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. XI, p. 317. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 13 

achy Postlethwayt, a writer of several treaties 
on commerce, states that even criminals often 
became leading men in Virginia. Although 
this is obviously an exaggeration, Postle- 
thwayt's testimony tends to add force to the 
contention that many of humble rank did at 
times rise to positions of honor. "Even your 
transported felons," he says, "sent to Virginia 
instead of to Tyburn, thousands of them, if we 
are not misinformed, have, by turning their 
hands to industry and improvement, and 
(which is best of all) to honesty, become rich, 
substantial planters and merchants, settled 
large families, and been famous in the country ; 
nay, we have seen many of them made magis- 
trates, officers of militia, captains of good ships, 
and masters of good estates." 14 In England 
stories of the rapid advance of people of hum- 
ble origin in Virginia gave rise to the absurd 
belief that the most influential families in the 
colony were chiefly composed of former crim- 
inals. Defoe in two of his popular novels, 
gives voice to this opinion. In Moll Flanders 
we find the following: "Among the rest, she 

"Fiske, Old Va. and Her Neighbors, Vol. II, p. 
182. 



14 THE ARISTOCRACY 

often told me how the greatest part of the in- 
habitants of that colony came hither in very 
indifferent circumstances from England; that 
generally speaking, they were of two sorts : 
either, 1st, such as were brought over. . . .to 
be sold as servants, or, 2nd, such as are trans- 
ported after having been found guilty of crimes 
punishable with death. When they come here 
.... the planters buy them, and they work to- 
gether in the field till their time is out. . . . 
(Then) they have. . . .land allotted them. . . . 
and (they) . . . .plant it with tobacco and corn 
for their own use; and as the merchants will 
trust them with tools .... upon the credit of 
their crop before it is grown, so they plant 
every year a little more (etc). Hence, child, 
says she, many a Newgate-bird becomes a great 
man, and we have. . . .several justices of the 
peace, officers of the trained band, and magis- 
trates of the towns they live in, that have been 
burnt in the hand." 15 In Mrs. Behn's comedy 
The Widow Ranter, the same belief finds ex- 
pression, for Friendly is made to say : "This 
country wants nothing but to be peopled with a 
well-born race to make it one of the best col- 

15 Ibid, Vol. II, p. 179. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 15 

onies in the world ; but for want of a governor 
we are ruled by a council, some of whom have 
been perhaps transported criminals, who hav- 
ing acquired great estates are now become 
Your Honour and Right Worshipful, and pos- 
sess all places of authority." 16 It is abso- 
lutely certain that the Virginia aristocracy was 
not descended from felons, but this belief that 
found voice in works of fiction of the 17th cen- 
tury must have had some slight foundation in 
truth. It tends to strengthen the evidence that 
many men of humble origin did attain places 
of honor and profit in the colony, and it shows 
that in England in this period people were far 
from imagining that many aristocrats had 
come to Virginia to settle. 17 

Although it is impossible to determine with 
accuracy the lineage of all the leading families 
of Virginia during the 17th century, it is 
definitely known that many of the most wealthy 

"Ibid, Vol. II, p. 170. 

"As late as the year 1775 we find Dr. Samuel 
Johnson, with his usual dislike of America, repeat- 
ing the old error. In speaking of the rebellious 
colonists, he says: "Sir, they are a race of con- 
victs, and ought to be thankful for anything we al- 
low them short of hanging." Boswell's Life of 
Samuel Johnson, Temple Classics, Vol. Ill, p. 174. 



16 THE ARISTOCRACY 

and influential houses were founded by men 
that could boast of no social prominence in 
England. In the days immediately following 
the downfall of the London Company there 
was no more influential man in the colony than 
Abraham Piersey. In matters of political in- 
terest he took always a leading part, and was 
respected and feared by his fellow colonists. 
He was well-to-do when he came to Virginia, 
having acquired property as a successful mer- 
chant, but he was in no way a man of social 
distinction or rank. John Chew was another 
man of great distinction in the colony. He too 
was a plain merchant attracted to the colony 
by the profits to be made from the planting and 
sale of tobacco. 1S George Menifie, who for 
years took so prominent a part in the political 
affairs of Virginia, and who, as a member of 
the Council was complicated in the expulsion 
of Governor Harvey, speaks of himself as a 
"merchant," although in later years he acquired 
the more distinguished title of "esquire." 
Menifie possessed an ample fortune, most of 
which was acquired by his own business ability 
and foresight. It is stated that his "large 

18 Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va., Vol. II, pp. 380, 366. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 17 

garden contained the fruits of Holland, and the 
roses of Provence, and his orchard was planted 
with apple, pear and cherry trees." 19 Samuel 
Mathews, a man of plain extraction, although 
well connected by marriage, was a leader in the 
colony. In political affairs his influence was 
second to none, and in the Commonwealth pe- 
riod he became governor. He is described as 
"an old planter of above 30 years standing, one 
of the Council and a most deserving Common- 
wealth man, .... He hath a fine house, and all 
things answerable to it ; he sows yearly store of 
hemp and flax and causes it to be spun; he 
keeps weavers and hath a tan house .... hath 
40 negro servants, brings them up to trade, in 
his house ; he yearly sows abundance of wheat, 
barley, etc. . . .kills store of beeves, and sells 
them to victual the ships when they come 
thither; hath abundance of kine, a brave dairy, 
swine great store and poultry." 20 Adam 
Thoroughgood, although he came to Virginia 
as a servant or apprentice, became wealthy and 
powerful. His estates were of great extent and 
at one time he owned forty-nine sheep and one- 

19 Ibid, Vol. II, p. 377. 
"Neill, Va. Carolorum. 



18 THE ARISTOCRACY 

hundred and seventeen cattle. 21 Captain Ralph 
Hamor, a leading planter in the days of the 
Company, was the son of a merchant tailor. 
Thomas Burbage, was another merchant that 
acquired large property in Virginia and be- 
came recognized as a man of influence. Ralph 
Warnet, who is described as a "merchant," died 
in 1630, leaving a large fortune. 22 That these 
men, none of whom could boast of high rank 
or social prominence in England, should have 
been accepted as leaders in the colony shows 
that the best class of settlers were of compara- 
tively humble extraction. Had many men of 
gentle blood come to Virginia during the first 
half of the 17th century there would have been 
no chance for the "merchant" class to acquire 
such prominence. 

Nor did men of plain extraction cease to oc- 
cupy prominent positions after the Restoration, 
when the much misunderstood "Cavalier" im- 
migration had taken place, and the society of 
the colony had been fixed. Amongst the lead- 
ing planters was Isaac Allerton, a man dis- 

21 Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va., Vol. II, pp. 372, 377, 
574. 

22 Bruce, Soc. Hist, of Va., p. 164; Econ. Hist, of 
Va., Vol. II, p. 531. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 19 

tinguished for his activities both in the House 
of Burgesses and the Council, and the founder 
of a prominent family, who was the son of an 
English merchant tailor. 23 The first of the 
famous family of Byrds, which for nearly a 
century was noted for its wealth, its influence, 
its social prominence, was the son of a London 
goldsmith. 24 Oswald Cary, who settled in 
Middlesex in 1659 was the son of an English 
merchant. 25 There was no man in the colony 
during the second half of the 17th century that 
exerted a more powerful influence in political 
affairs than Philip Ludwell. He was for years 
the mainstay of the commons and he proved 
to be a thorn in the flesh of more than one 
governor. He was admired for his ability, re- 
spected for his wealth and feared for his power, 
an admitted leader socially and politically in the 
colony, yet he was of humble extraction, his 
father and uncle both being mercers. The 
noted Bland family sprang from Adam Bland, 
a member of the skinners gild of London. 20 
Thomas Fitzhugh, one of the wealthiest and 

23 Wm. and Mary Quar., Vol. IV, p. 39. 

24 Ibid, Vol. IV, P- 153. 

^Va. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. XI, p. 366. 
20 Bruce, Soc. Hist, of Va., p. 91. 



20 THE ARISTOCRACY 

most prominent men of the colony, was 
thought to have been the grandson of a malt- 
ster. 

It was during the second half of the 17th 
century that occurred the "Cavalier" immigra- 
tion that took place as a consequence of the 
overthrow of Charles I. Upon this subject 
there has been much misapprehension. Many 
persons have supposed that the followers of the 
unhappy monarch came to Virginia by the thou- 
sand to escape the Puritans, and that it was 
from them that the aristocracy of the colony in 
large part originated. Even so eminent a his- 
torian as John Fiske has been led into the er- 
roneous belief that this immigration was chiefly 
responsible for the great increase in population 
that occurred at this time. "The great Cava- 
lier exodus," he says, "began with the king's 
execution in 1649, and probably slackened after 
1660. It must have been a chief cause of the 
remarkable increase of the white population of 
Virginia from 15,000 in 1649 to 38,000 in 
1670." 27 This deduction is utterly unwar- 
ranted. The increase in population noted here 
was due chiefly to the stream of indentured 

27 Fiske, Old Va. and Her Neighbors, Vol. II, p. 16. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 21 

servants that came to the colony at this period. 
At the time when the so-called Cavalier im- 
migration was at its height between one thou- 
sand and fifteen hundred servants were sent 
to Virginia each year. In 1671 Governor 
Berkeley estimated the number that came over 
annually at fifteen hundred, and it is safe to 
say that during the Commonwealth period the 
influx had been as great as at this date. The 
constant wars in Great Britain had made it 
easier to obtain servants for exportation to 
America, for thousands of prisoners were dis- 
posed of in this way and under Cromwell Vir- 
ginia received numerous batches of unfortunate 
wretches that paid for their hostility to Parlia- 
ment with banishment and servitude. Not only 
soldiers from King Charles' army, but many 
captives taken in the Scotch and Irish wars 
were sent to the colony. On the other hand 
after the Restoration, hundreds of Cromwell's 
soldiers were sold as servants. If we estimate 
the annual importation of servants at 1200, the 
entire increase of population which Fiske notes 
is at once accounted for. Moreover, the mor- 
tality that in the earlier years had been so fatal 
to the newcomers, was now greatly reduced 



22 THE ARISTOCRACY 

owing to the introduction of Peruvian bark and 
to the precautions taken by planters to prevent 
disease on their estates. Governor Berkeley 
said in 1671 that not many hands perished at 
that time, whereas formerly not one in five es- 
caped the first year. 

Nor can the increased number of births in 
the colony be neglected in accounting for the 
growth of population. The historian Bruce, 
referring to the period from 1634 to 1649, in 
which the population trebled, says : "The 
faster growth during this interval was due, not 
to any increase in the number of new settlers 
seeking homes in Virginia, but rather to the ad- 
vance in the birth-rate among the inhabitants. 
There was by the middle of the century a large 
native population thoroughly seasoned to all the 
trying variations of the climate and inured to 
every side of plantation life, however harsh and 
severe it might be in the struggle to press the 
frontier further and further outward." 28 It 
may then be asserted positively that the growth 
of population between the dates 1649 and 1670 
was not due to an influx of Cavaliers. 

Had many men of note fled to Virginia at 

28 Bruce, Soc. Hist, of Va., pp. 18 and 19. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 23 

this period their arrival would scarcely have es- 
caped being recorded. Their prominence and 
the circumstances of their coming to the colony 
would have insured for them a place in the 
writings of the day. A careful collection of the 
names of those Cavaliers that were prominent 
enough to find a place in the records, shows 
that their number was insignificant. The fol- 
lowing list includes nearly all of any note what- 
soever: Sir Thomas Lunsford, Col. Ham- 
mond, Sir Philip Honeywood, Col. Norwood, 
Stevens, Brodnax, Welsford, Molesworth, Col. 
Moryson, John Woodward, Robert Jones, 
Nicholas Dunn, Anthony Langston, Bishop, 
Culpeper, Peter Jenings, John Washington, 
Lawrence Washington, Sir Dudley Wiat, 
Major Fox, Dr. Jeremiah Harrison, Sir Gray 
Shipworth, Sir Henry Chiskeley and Col. 
Joseph Bridger. Of this number a large part 
returned to England and others failed to estab- 
lish families in the colony. How few were 
their numbers is shown by the assertions of co- 
lonial writers. Sir William Berkeley reported 
in 1671 that Cromwell's "tyranny" had sent 
divers worthy men to the colony. Hugh Jones, 
writing in 1722, speaks of the civil wars in 



24 THE ARISTOCRACY 

England as causing several families of good 
birth and fortune to settle in Virginia. This 
language certainly gives no indication of a 
wholesale immigration of Cavaliers. 

Some writers have pointed to the number of 
families in Virginia that were entitled to the 
use of coats-of-arms as convincing proof that 
the aristocracy of the colony was founded by 
men of high social rank. It is true that in 
numerous instances Virginians had the right 
to coats-of-arms, but this does not prove that 
their blood was noble, for in most cases these 
emblems of gentility came to them through an- 
cestors that were mercantile in occupation and 
in instinct. During the 17th century the trades 
were in high repute in England, and to them 
resorted many younger sons of the gentry. 
These youths, excluded from a share in the pa- 
ternal estate by the law of primogeniture, were 
forced either into the professions or the trades. 
It was the custom for the country gentleman to 
leave to his eldest son the whole of his landed 
estates; the second son he sent to Oxford or 
to Cambridge to prepare for one of the learned 
professions, such as divinity, medicine or law; 
the third was apprenticed to some local sur- 



THE ARISTOCRACY 25 

geon or apothecary ; the fourth was sent to Lon- 
don to learn the art of weaving, of watchmak- 
ing or the like. It was the educating of the 
youngest sons in the trades that gave rise to the 
close connection between the commercial classes 
in England and the gentry. Great numbers of 
merchants in the trading cities were related to 
the country squire or even to the nobleman. 
These merchant families, since they did not 
possess landed estates, could not style them- 
selves "gentlemen," but they clung to the use 
of the coat-of-arms that had descended to them 
from their ancestors. Thus it happened that 
some of the immigrants to Virginia possessed 
coats-of-arms. Since they still looked upon the 
life of the country squire as the ideal existence, 
as soon as they were settled upon the planta- 
tions, they imitated it as far as possible. With 
the possession of land they assumed the title of 
"gentleman." Since the squire or nobleman 
from whom the right to the coat-of-arms came 
to them might have lived many generations be- 
fore the migration to Virginia, the use of this 
emblem could give but little ground for a claim 
to gentle blood. 

Finally, the opinion that the leading planters 



26 THE ARISTOCRACY 

of the colony sprang from families of distinc- 
tion and high social rank in England is being 
discarded by the best authorities on Virginia 
history. The Virginia Magazine of History 
and Biography, which has done so much to 
shed light on the early history of Virginia, 
throws its influence without compromise 
against the old belief. It says : "If the talk of 
'Virginia Cavaliers' indicates an idea that most 
of the Virginia gentry were descended from 
men of high rank, who had adhered to the 
King's side and afterwards emigrated to Vir- 
ginia, it is assuredly incorrect. Some members 
of distinguished families, a considerable num- 
ber of the minor gentry, as well as persons of 
the lower ranks, after the success of a party 
which they believe to be composed of rebels and 
traitors, came to Virginia, finding here a warm 
welcome, and leaving many descendants." 29 
Again it says : "As we have before urged, and 
as we believe all genealogists having any compe- 
tent acquaintance with the subject will agree, 
but few 'scions of great English houses' came 
to any of the colonies. Gloucester. . . .has al- 
ways been distinguished in Virginia as the resi- 

29 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. I, p. 215. 



THE ARISTROCACY 27 

dence of a large number of families of wealth, 
education and good birth; but in only a few- 
instances are they descended from 'great 
houses' even of the English gentry. The fam- 
ilies of Wyatt, Peyton and Throckmorton are 
perhaps the only ones derived from English 
houses of historic note; but they were never, 
in Virginia, as eminent for large estates and 
political influence as others of the same county 
whose English ancestry is of much less dis- 
tinction. Next, as known descendants of 
minor gentry, were the families of Page, Bur- 
well, Lightfoot and Clayton. Other leading 
names of the county, nothing certain in regard 
to whose English ancestry is known, were 
Kemp, Lewis, Warner, etc. These families 
were, like those of the ruling class in other 
countries, doubtless derived from ancestors of 
various ranks and professions. . . .members of 
the country gentry, merchants and tradesmen 
and their sons and relatives, and occasionally a 
minister, a physician, a lawyer or a captain in 
the merchant service." 30 The William and 
Mary Quarterly makes the unequivocal state- 
ment that it was the "shipping people and mer- 

80 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 217. 



28 THE ARISTOCRACY 

chants who really settled Virginia." John 
Fiske, despite the exaggerated importance 
which he gives to the Cavalier immigration, 
agrees that the leading planters were not de- 
scended from English families of high rank. 
"Although," he says, "family records were un- 
til of late less carefully preserved (in Vir- 
ginia) than in New England, yet the registered 
facts abundantly prove that the leading fam- 
ilies had precisely the same sort of origin as 
the leading families of New England. For 
the most part they were either country squires, 
or prosperous yeomen, or craftsmen from the 
numerous urban guilds; and alike in Virginia 
and in New England there was a similar pro- 
portion of persons connected with English fam- 
ilies ennobled or otherwise eminent for public 
service." 31 

Beyond doubt the most numerous section of 
the Virginia aristocracy was derived from the 
English merchant class. 32 It was the oppor- 
tunity of amassing wealth by the cultivation of 
tobacco that caused great numbers of these 

"Fiske, Old Va. and Her Neighbors, Vol. II, p. 
187. 
32 Bruce, Soc. Hist, of Va., p. 83. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 29 

men to settle in the Old Dominion. Many had 
been dealers in the plant in England, receiving 
it in their warehouses and disposing of it to 
retailers. They kept up a constant and inti- 
mate correspondence with the planter, acting 
for him as purchasing agent, supplying him 
with clothes, with household goods, with the 
thousand and one articles essential to the con- 
ducting of the plantation, and thus were in a 
position to judge of the advantages he enjoyed. 
They kept him in touch with the political situ- 
ation in England and in return received from 
him the latest tidings of what was going on in 
Virginia. In fact for one hundred and fifty 
years after the founding of Jamestown the 
colony was in closer touch with London, Bris- 
tol, Plymouth and other English seaports than 
with its nearest neighbors in America. 33 

The life of the Virginia planters offered an 
inviting spectacle to the English merchant. He 
could but look with envious eyes upon the large 
profits which for so many years the cultivation 
of tobacco afforded. He held, in common with 

33 Wm. & Mary Quar., Vol. IV, p. 29; Ibid., Vol. 
VI, p. 173; Bruce, Soc. Life of Va., p. 85; Jones' 
Virginia. 



30 THE ARISTOCRACY 

all Englishmen, the passion for land, and in 
Virginia land could be had almost for the ask- 
ing. He understood fully that could he re- 
solve to leave his native country a position of 
political power and social supremacy awaited 
him in the colony. 

The civil wars in England greatly acceler- 
ated the emigration of merchants to Virginia. 
Business men are usually averse to war, for 
nothing can derange the delicate fibers of 
commerce more quickly than battles and sieges. 
And this is especially true of civil wars, for 
then it is the very heart of the country that 
suffers. Many prominent merchants of the 
English cities, fearing that their interests 
would be ruined by the ravages of the contend- 
ing armies or the general business depression, 
withdrew to the colony, which was pursuing its 
usual quiet life but slightly affected by the con- 
vulsions of the mother country. William Hal- 
lam, a salter, wrote, "I fear if these times hold 
amongst us, we must all be faine to come to 
Virginia." William Mason wrote in 1648, "I 
will assure you that we have had several great 
losses that have befallen us and our charge is 



THE ARISTOCRACY 31 

greater by reason of ye differences that are in 
our kingdom, trading is dead." 34 

The most convincing evidence that the lead- 
ing settlers in Virginia were of the mercantile 
class is to be found by a study of the character- 
istics of the planters of the 17th century. Con- 
temporaneous writers are unanimous in de- 
scribing them as mercantile in their instincts. 
De Vries, a Dutch trader, complaining of the 
sharpness of the planters in a bargain, says, 
"You must look out when you trade with them, 
for if they can deceive any one they account it 
a Roman action." 35 Hugh Jones says, "The 
climate makes them bright and of excellent 
sense, and sharp in trade .... They are gener- 
ally diverted by business or inclination from 
profound study .... being ripe for management 
of their affairs .... They are more inclined 
to read men by business and conversa- 
tion than to dive into books .... being not eas- 
ily brought to new projects and schemes; so 
that I question, if they would have been im- 

"Wm. & Mary Quar., Vol. VIII, p. 243. 

25 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. XI, pp. 359, 
366, 453; Vol. XII, pp. 170, 173; Wm. & Mary Quar., 
Vol. IV, pp. 27, 39; Bruce, Soc. Life of Va. 



32 THE ARISTOCRACY 

posed upon by the Mississippi or South-Sea, or 
any other such monstrous Bubbles. 36 

And this evidence is corroborated fully by 
letters of Virginia planters to English mer- 
chants. They show that the wealthy Virginian 
of the 17th century was careful in his business 
dealings, sharp in a bargain, a painstaking 
manager, and in his private life often econom- 
ical even to stinginess. Robert Carter, one of 
the wealthiest men of the colony, in a letter 
complains of the money spent upon the outfit of 
the Wormley boys who were at school in Eng- 
land, thinking it "entirely in excess of any 
need." William Fitzhugh, Philip Ludwell, 
William Byrd I, typical leaders of their time, by 
the mercantile instinct that they inherited from 
their fathers were enabled to build up those 
great estates which added such splendor to the 
Virginia aristocracy of the 18th century. 37 

38 Jones' Virginia. 

87 Thinking Virginians of today cannot but be 
gratified that the old erroneous belief concerning 
the origin of the aristocracy is being swept away. 
Why it should ever have been a matter of pride 
with old families to point to the English nobility 
of the 17th century as the class from which they 
sprang is not easy to understand. The lords of 
that day were usually corrupt, unscrupulous and 



THE ARISTOCRACY 33 

Having, as we hope, sufficiently shown that 
the leading planters of Virginia were not in 
any large measure the descendants of English- 
men of high social rank, and that with them the 
predominant instinct was mercantile, we shall 
now proceed to point out those conditions to 
which the planters were subjected that changed 
them from practical business men to idealistic 
and chivalrous aristocrats. 

Undoubtedly the most powerful influence 
that acted upon the character of the Virginian 
was the plantation system. In man's existence 
it is the ceaseless grind of the commonplace 
events of every day life that shapes the charac- 
ter. The most violent passions or the most 
stirring events leave but a fleeting impression 
in comparison with the effect of one's daily oc- 
cupation. There is something distinctive about 

quite unfit to found vigorous families in the "wil- 
derness of America." How much better it is to 
know that the aristocracy of the colony was a 
product of Virginia itself! The self-respect, the 
power of command, the hospitality, the chivalry of 
the Virginians were not borrowed from England, 
but sprang into life on the soil of the Old Dominion. 
Amid the universal admiration and respect for 
Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Marshall, with 
what pride can the Virginian point to them as the 
products of his native state! 



34 THE ARISTOCRACY 

the doctor, the teacher, the tailor, the gold- 
smith. There is in each something different 
from the rest of mankind, and this something 
has been developed within him by the ceaseless 
recurrence of certain duties required of him by 
his profession. Similarly the English im- 
migrant, isolated upon his vast plantation, sur- 
rounded by slaves and servants, his time occu- 
pied largely with the cultivation of tobacco, 
could not fail in the course of time to lose his 
mercantile instincts and to become distinctly 
aristocratic in his nature. 

The estates of the planters were very large, 
comprising frequently thousands of acres. Wil- 
liam Byrd II inherited from his father 23,231 
acres, but so great was his hunger for land and 
so successful was he in obtaining it that at his 
death he owned no less than 179,440 acres of 
the best land in Virginia. 38 Robert Carter, of 
Nomini Hall, owned 60,000 acres. 39 The lands 
of William Fitzhugh amounted to 54,000 acres, 
at his death in 1701. 40 Other prominent men 
were possessed of estates not less extensive. 

38 Bassett, Writings of Wm. Byrd, lxxxiii. 

30 Fithian, Journal and Letters, p. 128. 

40 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. I, p. 17. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 35 

These vast tracts of land comprised usually 
several plantations that were scattered in va- 
rious parts of the colony and which differed 
widely in value and in extent. In the region to 
the west beyond tidewater estates of 20,000. 
30,000, or 40,000 acres were not infrequent, 
while in the sections that had been first settled 
the average size was much less. Yet the plan- 
tations that stretched along the banks of the 
James, the York, the Rappahannock and the 
Potomac were so extensive that often the resi- 
dences of the planters were several miles apart. 
From 4,000 to 6,000 acres was the average size 
of the farms of the wealthier men. 41 

The author of Virginia's Cure, a pamphlet 
printed in 1661, says: "The families. .. .are 
dispersedly and scatteringly seated upon the 
sides of rivers, some of which running very far 
into the country, bear the English plantations 
above a hundred miles, and being very broad, 
cause the inhabitants of either side to be listed 
in several parishes. Every such parish is ex- 
tended many miles in length upon the rivers' 
side, and usually not above a mile in breadth 

"Fiske, Old Va. and Her Neighbors, Vol. II, p. 
221. 



36 THE ARISTOCRACY 

backward from the river, which is the common 
stated breadth of every plantation, some extend 
themselves half a mile, some a mile, some two 
miles upon the sides of the rivers." 42 

The system of large plantations was in vogue 
in Virginia from the early years of the 17th 
century. Even before the days of Sir William 
Berkeley, many of the colonists possessed ex- 
tensive tracts of land, only part of which they 
could put under cultivation. Doubtless the dig- 
nity which the possession of land gave in Eng- 
land was the principal inducement for the 
planter to secure as large an estate as his means 
would permit. The wealthier Virginians 
showed throughout the entire colonial period a 
passion for land that frequently led them into 
the grossest and most unjustifiable fraud. 43 

The tendency was accelerated by the law, 
made by the Virginia Company of London to 
encourage immigration, which allotted fifty 
acres of land to proprietors for every person 
they brought to the colony, "by which means 

" Force, Hist. Tracts, Vol. III. 

43 The proofs of this statement are here omitted, 
as they are given at much length on pages 96 to 
98 of this volume. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 37 

some men transporting many servants thither, 
and others purchasing the rights of those that 
did, took possession of great tracts of land at 
their pleasure." 44 In 1621 a number of ex- 
tensive grants were made to persons thus en- 
gaging themselves to take settlers to Virginia. 
To Arthur Swain and Nathaniel Basse were 
given 5,000 acres for undertaking to transport 
one hundred persons. Five thousand acres 
was also given Rowland Truelove "and divers 
other patentees." Similar tracts were given to 
John Crowe, Edward Ryder, Captain Simon 
Leeke and others. 45 Sir George Yeardly re- 
ceived a grant of 15,000 acres for engaging to 
take over three hundred persons. 46 

Even more potent in building up large plan- 
tations was the wasteful system of agriculture 
adopted by the settlers. It soon became ap- 
parent to them that the cultivation of tobacco 
was very exhausting to the soil, but the abun- 
dance of land led them to neglect the most ordi- 
nary precautions to preserve the fertility of their 

44 Virginia's Cure. 

45 Abst. Proceedings Va. Co. of London, Vol. I, 
p. 154. 

"Abst. Proceedings Va. Co. of London, Vol. I, 
p. 160. 



38 THE ARISTOCRACY 

fields. They planted year after year upon the 
same spot until the soil would produce no more, 
and then cleared a new field. They were less 
provident even than the peasants of the Middle 
Ages, for they failed to adopt the old system 
of rotation of crops that would have arrested to 
some extent the exhausting of their fields. Of 
the use of artificial fertilizers they were ig- 
norant. 

This system of cultivation made it necessary 
for them to secure very large plantations, for 
they could not be content with a tract of ter- 
ritory sufficiently large to keep busy their force 
of laborers. They must look forward to the 
time when their fields would become useless, 
and if they were wise they would secure ten 
times more than they could put into cultivation 
at once. If they failed to do this they would 
find at the end of a few years that their estates 
consisted of nothing but exhausted and useless 
fields. Thomas Whitlock, in his will dated 
1659, says: "I give my son Thomas Whitlock 
the land I live on, 600 acres, when he is of the 
age 21, and during his minority to my wife. 
The land not to be further made use of or by 



THE ARISTOCRACY 39 

planting or seating 47 than the first deep branch 
that is commonly rid over, that my son may 
have some fresh land when he attains to age." 48 

The plantations, thus vast in extent, soon be- 
came little communities independent in a marked 
degree of each other, and in many respects of 
the entire colony. The planter, his family, his 
servants and slaves lived to themselves in iso- 
lation almost as great as that of the feudal 
barons or of the inhabitants of the vill of the 
13th century. 

But this isolation was due even more to the 
direct trade between the planters and the for- 
eign merchants than to the extent of the plan- 
tations. This was made possible by the nature 
of the waterways. The entire country was in- 
tersected with rivers, inlets and creeks that 
were deep enough to float the sea going ves- 
sels of the age, and salt water penetrated the 
woods for miles, forming of the whole country, 
as John Fiske has expressed it, a sylvan Venice. 
Thus it was possible for each planter to have 
his own wharf and to ship his tobacco directly 



47 The word seating is used here in the sense of 
occupying. 

48 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. V, p. 285. 



40 THE ARISTOCRACY 

from his own estate. Moreover, it allowed him 
to receive from the foreign vessels what mer- 
chandise he desired to purchase. Hugh Jones 
wrote, "No country is better watered, for the 
conveniency of which most houses are built 
near some landing-place ; so that anything may 
be delivered to a gentleman there from London, 
Bristol, &c, with less trouble and cost, than 
to one living five miles in the country in Eng- 
land ; for you pay no freight from London and 
but little from Bristol ; only the party to whom 
the goods belong, is in gratitude engaged to 
ship tobacco upon the ship consigned to her 
owners in England." 49 

This system, so remarkably convenient for the 
planters, was continued throughout the entire 
colonial period despite the many efforts made 
to change it. The Virginians could not be in- 
duced to bring their tobacco to towns for the 
purposes of shipping when the merchant ves- 
sels could so easily land at their private 
wharves. The merchants had less reason to 
like the system, for it forced them to take their 

49 An account of Virginia in 1676 written by Mrs. 
Thomas Slover says, "The planters' houses are built 
all along the sides of the rivers for the conveniency 
of shipping." 



THE ARISTOCRACY 41 

vessels into remote and inconvenient places ; to 
spend much valuable time in going from plan- 
tation to plantation before their vessels were 
laden; to keep accounts with many men in 
many different places. 30 The sailors too com- 
plained of the custom, for they were frequently 
required to roll the tobacco in casks many yards 
over the ground to the landings, causing them 
much greater trouble than in loading in other 
countries. For this reason they are said to 
have had a great dislike of the country. 
Throughout the 17th century and even later the 
English government made repeated efforts to 
break up this system but without success, for 
the saving to the planters by local shipping was 
so great that threats and even attempted coer- 
cion could not make them give it up. 

It is this that is chiefly responsible for the 
lack of towns in Virginia during the entire 
17th century. Not until the settlements had 
spread out beyond the region of deep water did 
towns of any size arise. Then it became neces- 
sary to bring goods overland to the nearest 
deep water and from this circumstance ship- 
ping cities gradually appeared at the falls line 

60 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. IV, p. 261. 



42 THE ARISTOCRACY 

on the rivers. Then it was that Richmond de- 
veloped into the metropolis of Virginia. 

How utterly insignificant the villages of the 
colony were during the 17th century is shown 
by a description of Jamestown given by Mrs. 
Ann Cotton in her account of Bacon's Proceed- 
ings. "The town," she says, "is built much 
about the middle of the south line close upon 
the river, extending east and west about three- 
quarters of a mile; in which is comprehended 
some sixteen or eighteen houses ; most as is the 
church built of brick faire and large; and in 
them about a dozen famillies (for all their 
houses are not inhabited) getting their liveings 
by keeping of ordinaries at extraordinary 
rates." This was in 1676, sixty-nine years 
after the first settlement, and when the popula- 
tion of the colony was 45,000. 

The lack of towns was a source of much un- 
easiness to the first promoters of the colony, 
for they regarded it as a sign of unhealthful 
and abnormal conditions and frequent direc- 
tions were given to the colonial governors to 
put an end to the scattered mode of life and to 
encourage in every way possible the develop- 
ment of cities. Sir Francis Wyatt was in- 



THE ARISTOCRACY 43 

structed "to draw tradesmen and handicraft- 
men into towns." 51 Time and again through- 
out the 17th century the English kings insisted 
that the Assembly should pass laws intended to 
establish trading towns. In 1662, an act was 
passed at the command of Charles II providing 
for the building of a city at Jamestown. 52 
There were to be thirty-two brick houses, forty 
feet long, twenty feet wide, and eighteen feet 
high ; the roof to be fifteen feet high and to be 
covered with slate or tile. "And," says the 
Act, "because these preparations of houses and 
stores will be altogether useless unless the 
towne be made the marte of all the adjoyning 
places, bee it therefore enacted that all the to- 
bacco made in the three counties of James 
Citty, Charles Citty, and Surrey shall the next 
yeare when the stores be built be brought by 
the inhabitants to towne and putt in the stores 
there built." This absurd attempt met with 
utter failure. One of the complaints made to 
the King's Commissioners sent to investigate 
the causes of Bacon's Rebellion was, "That 
great quantities of tobacco was levied upon the 

" Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. XI, p. 56. 
B2 Hening's Statutes, Vol. II, p. 172. 



44 THE ARISTOCRACY 

poor people to the building of houses at James- 
town, which was not made habitable but fell 
down again before they were finished." 53 

In an effort to build up towns an act was 
passed in 1680 requiring all merchants to bring 
their goods to certain specified spots and there 
only to load their vessels with tobacco. "But 
several masters of ships and traders .... not 
finding. . . .any reception or shelter for them- 
selves, goods or tobaccos, did absolutely refuse 
to comply with the said act .... but traded and 
shipped tobaccos as they were accustomed 
to doe in former years, for which some of them 
suffered mouch trouble .... the prosecution be- 
ing chiefly managed by such persons .... as 
having particular regard to their privat ends 
and designs, laid all the stumbling blocks they 
could in the way of publick traffic (though to 
the great dissatisfaction of the most and best 
part of the country)." 54 

In 1682 Lord Culpeper was instructed to do 
everything in his power to develop Jamestown 
into a city. Charles II told him to announce to 
the members of the Council that he would re- 

BJ Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. II, p. 3S7. 
"McDonald Papers, Vol. VI, p. 213. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 45 

gard with special favor those that built houses 
there and made it their permanent residence. 
Culpeper seems to have recognized the useless- 
ness of the attempt, for he wrote, "I have 
given all encouragement possible for the re- 
building of James Citty, . . . .as to the proposall 
of building houses by those of the Counsell and 
the cheefe inhabitants, it hath once been at- 
tempted in vaine, nothing but profitt and ad- 
vantage can doe it, and then there will be noe 
need of anything else." 55 

The Act of 1680 was never enforced. The 
planters complained that the places selected for 
ports were too few in number and that they 
were put to great expense in bringing their to- 
bacco to them for shipment. The English 
government then directed the Assembly so to 
change the Act that it could be put into prac- 
tical operation, but an attempt, in 1685, to fol- 
low these instructions proved futile. The Bur- 
gesses were willing to pass a bill providing for 
ports in each county, but this was not what the 
king wanted and so the whole matter came to 
nothing. 56 

55 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. XI, p. 398. 
50 Journal of Council, McDonald Papers, Vol. VII, 
pp. 457-566. 



46 THE ARISTOCRACY 

These failures were attributed by many to 
the obstinacy of the Virginians. Men at that 
time understood but dimly the supremacy of 
economic laws, and could not realize that so 
long as the planters found it profitable to do 
their shipping from their private wharves so 
long would there be no seaports in Virginia, no 
matter what laws were enacted. In 1701 a 
pamphlet was published entitled, "A Plain and 
Friendly Perswasive to the Inhabitants of Vir- 
ginia and Maryland for promoting Towns and 
Cohabitation." The author tried to prove that 
towns would be an unmixed blessing to the 
colony, that they would promote trade, stimu- 
late immigration, build up manufacture and aid 
education and religion. 57 A similar pamphlet, 
called Virginia's Cure, had been written in 
1661, complaining that the scattered mode of 
life was the cause of the decline of religion in 
Virginia and advocating the building of towns. 

This lack of urban life reacted strongly upon 
the plantations. Since there were no centers 
of activity in the colony where the planters 
could gather on occasions of universal interest, 
it tended to isolate them upon their estates. It 

67 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. IV, p. 255. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 47 

forced them to become, except for their trade 
with England, self-sustaining little communi- 
ties. As there were no towns to act as markets 
there was almost no trade between the various 
parts of the colony. During the 17th century 
a stranger in Virginia desiring to purchase any 
article whatever, could only obtain it by apply- 
ing at some plantation. Nowhere else in the 
colony could it be had. The Friendly Perswa- 
sive dwelt especially on the evils of this state 
of affairs. "And as to a home-trade," it says, 
"by towns, all plantations far or near, would 
have some trade, less or more, to these towns, 
and a frequent trade, and traffic, would soon 
grow and arise between the several rivers and 
towns, by carrying and transporting passengers 
and goods to and fro ; and supplying all places 
with such goods as they want most." Not un- 
til the end of the century was there even the 
beginning of home trade. Then it was that 
Williamsburg, Norfolk and Hampton, still 
mere villages, enjoyed a slight trade with the 
surrounding plantations. 

This state of affairs made necessary the 
system of plantation manufacture. Those ar- 
ticles whose nature made importation from 



48 THE ARISTOCRACY 

Europe inconvenient were produced upon the 
plantations, and not in the towns of the colony. 
It had been the purpose of the Virginia Com- 
pany of London to make the colony an in- 
dustrial community and with this in view they 
had so encouraged the immigration of trades- 
men and artisans, that between the years 
1619 and 1624 hundreds of carpenters, smiths, 
coopers, bricklayers, etc., settled in Virginia. 
These men soon found, however, that they 
could not maintain themselves by their trades, 
and many, giving up their calling, secured 
tracts of land and became planters. Others 
took up their abode on some large plantation 
to serve as overseers or head workmen. In 
1639 Sir Francis Wyatt was instructed to see 
to it "that tradesmen and handicraftsmen be 
compelled to follow their several trades," 58 
but this order was entirely ineffectual and soon 
but few artisans remained. Makensie says, 
"Our tradesmen are none of the best, and 
seldom improve from the incouragement they 
have. If some few stick to their trades, they 
demand extravigant rates, and few employ 

C8 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. XI, p. 56. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 49 

them but out of pure necessity." 59 Not in- 
frequently an artisan would combine tobacco 
planting with his trade, since the latter alone 
was but a slender and insufficient source of 
income. On several occasions the Assembly 
tried to encourage the various trades by ex- 
empting free artisans from taxation, but this 
too proved ineffective. 60 

The planters found it necessary to secure 
skilled servants to fill the place of the hired 
workmen, and soon every estate had its smith, 
its carpenter, its cooper, etc. At the home 
plantation of "King" Carter were two house 
carpenters, a ship carpenter, a glazier, two 
tailors, a gardener, a blacksmith, two brick- 
layers and two sailors, all indentured serv- 
ants. 61 In his will Col. Carter divided these 
men among his three sons. 62 The inventory 
of the property of Ralph Wormeley, who died 
in 1791, shows that at the home house there 
were eight English servants, among them a 
shoemaker, a tailor and a miller. In the 18th 
century, when the negro slave had to a large 

89 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. IV, p. 267. 
60 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. IX, p. 277. 
81 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. VI, p. 367. 
03 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. VI, p. 3. 



50 THE ARISTOCRACY 

extent taken the place of the white servant, 
attempts were made to teach the Africans to 
become artisans, but with partial success only. 
Hugh Jones, in speaking of the negroes, says, 
"Several of them are taught to be sawyers, 
carpenters, smiths, coopers, &c. though for the 
most part they be none of the aptest or 
nicest." 63 

An interesting picture of the life on the 
plantation is given in the manuscript recollec- 
tions of George Mason, by his son General 
John Mason. "It was much the practice," he 
says, "with gentlemen of landed and slave 
estates .... so to organize them as to have con- 
siderable resources within themselves; to em- 
ploy and pay but few tradesmen, and to buy 
little or none of the course stuffs and materials 
used by them .... Thus my father had among 
his slaves, carpenters, coopers, sawyers, black- 
smiths, tanners, curriers, shoemakers, spinners, 
weavers, and knitters, and even a distiller. 
His woods furnished timber and plank for the 
carpenters and coopers, and charcoal for the 
blacksmiths ; his cattle .... supplied skins for 
the tanners, curriers and shoemakers; and his 

"Jones' Virginia, p. 36. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 51 

sheep gave wool and his fields produced cotton 
and flax for the weavers and spinners, and his 
orchards fruit for the distiller. His carpenters 
and sawyers built and kept in repair all the 
dwelling houses, barns, stables, ploughs, har- 
rows, gates, etc., on the plantations, and the 
outhouses at the house. His coopers made the 
hogsheads the tobacco was prized in, and the 
tight casks to hold the cider and other liquors. 
The tanners and curriers, with the proper vats, 
etc., tanned and dressed the skins as well for 
upper as for lower leather to the full amount 
of the consumption of the estate, and the shoe- 
makers made them into shoes for the negroes. 
A professed shoemaker was hired for three or 
four months in the year to come and make up 
the shoes for the white part of the famil)'-. 
The blacksmith did all the ironwork required 
by the establishment, as making and repairing 
ploughs, harrows, teeth, chains, bolts, etc. 
The spinners, weavers, and knitters made all 
the course cloths and stockings used by the 
negroes, and some of finer texture worn by 
the white family, nearly all worn by the chil- 
dren of it. The distiller made every fall a 
good deal of apple, peach, and percimmon 



52 THE ARISTOCRACY 

brandy. . . .Moreover, all the beeves and hogs 
for consumption or sale were driven up and 
slaughtered .... at the proper seasons and 
whatever was to be preserved was salted and 
packed away for after distribution." 64 

And the isolation that was a consequence of 
this industrial independence was made all the 
more pronounced by the condition of the roads. 
The task of cutting highways through the great 
forests was more than the first settlers could 
undertake. During the 17th century boats were 
the most common means of conveyance. 65 
Each plantation possessed a number of vessels 
of various sizes and the settlers made use of 
them both in visiting their immediate neigh- 
bors and in travelling to more remote parts of 
the colony. Owing to the great width of the 
rivers, however, the use of small boats was 
fraught with danger. 66 For many miles from 
their mouths the James, the York, and the Rap- 

64 Rowland, Life of Geo. Mason, Vol. I, pp. 101, 
102; compare Fithian, Journal and Letters, pp. 67, 
104, 130, 131, 138, 217, 259; Va. Maga. of Hist, and 
Biog., Vol. XI, p. 62; Fiske, Old Va. and Her 
Neighbors, Vol. II, pp. 208, 214, 217; Bruce, Econ. 
Hist, of Va. Vol. II, pp. 411, 418. 

65 Force Hist. Tracts, Vol. II, Va. Maga. of Hist, 
and Biog., Vol. VI, p. 267. 

89 Jones' Va., p. 49. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 53 

pahannock are rather broad inlets of the Chesa- 
peake Bay than rivers, and at many points to 
row across is no light undertaking. 

Early in the 18th century efforts were made 
to construct serviceable roads. The settlements 
had by that time extended back from the rivers 
and creeks, and means of communication by 
land was absolutely necessary. The nature of 
the country, however, presented great difficulty. 
Hugh Jones wrote, "The worst inconveniency in 
travelling across the country, is the circuit that 
must be taken to head creeks, &c, for the main 
roads wind along the rising ground between the 
rivers, tho' now they much shorten their 
passage by mending the swamps and building 
of bridges in several places; and there are es- 
tablished ferries at convenient places, over the 
great rivers." But slight attention was given 
to keeping the roads in good condition and 
after each long rain they become almost impas- 
sable. The lack of bridges was a great hin- 
drance to traffic and even the poor substitute of 
ferries was often lacking, forcing travellers to 
long detours or to the dangerous task of swim- 
ming the stream. 67 

67 Fiske, Old Va. and Her Neighbors, Vol. II, p. 215. 



54 THE ARISTOCRACY 

Thus cut off from his neighbors the planter 
spent his life in isolation almost as great as that 
of the feudal barons of the Middle Ages. The 
plantation was to him a little world whose ac- 
tivities it was his business to direct and this 
world moulded his character far more than any 
outward influence. 

It is a matter of no surprise that one of the 
first distinctive characteristics to develop 
among the Virginia planters was pride. This 
trait was natural to them even in the early years 
of the 17th century. The operation of eco- 
nomic conditions upon a society is usually very 
slow, and frequently the changes that it brings 
about may be detected only after the lapse of 
centuries. This fact is nowhere more apparent 
than in the development of the Virginia aristoc- 
racy, and we find that its distinctive character 
had not been fully formed until after the Rev- 
olution. Pride, however, is a failing so natural 
to humanity that its development may be a 
matter of a few years only. Conditions in the 
colony could not fail to produce, even in the 
first generations of Virginians, all the dignity 
and self esteem of an old established aristoc- 
racy. William Byrd I, Daniel Parke, "King" 



THE ARISTOCRACY 55 

Carter were every whit as proud as were Ran- 
dolph, Madison or Jefferson. 

It is interesting to note how careful were the 
Virginians of the 17th century not to omit in 
documents and legal papers any term of dis- 
tinction to which a man was entitled. If he 
possessed two titles he was usually given both. 
Thus Thomas Willoughby is alluded to in the 
records of Lower Norfolk County as "Lieu- 
tenant Thomas Willoughby, gentleman." The 
term "esquire" was used only by members of 
the Council, and was the most honorable and 
respectful which could be obtained in Virginia, 
implying a rank which corresponded with the 
nobility in England. It invested those that 
bore it with dignity and authority such as has 
been enjoyed by the aristocrats of few coun- 
tries. The respect shown to the leading men of 
the colony is evinced by an incident which be- 
fell Colonel William Byrd I, in 1685. One 
Humphrey Chamberlaine, a man of good birth, 
became angry with Byrd, and drew his sword 
in order to attack him. The man was imme- 
diately seized and put in jail. At his hearing 
before the court he declared in palliation of 
his act that he was a stranger in the country 



56 THE ARISTOCRACY 

and ignorant of its customs, but the justices 
thought this a poor excuse, declaring that "no 
stranger, especially an English gentleman, 
could be insensible of ye respect and reverence 
due to so honorable a person" as Col. Byrd. 
Chamberlaine was fined heavily. 68 

The arrogance of these early aristocrats is 
shown even more strikingly by the conduct of 
Col. John Custis in 1688. As collector of 
duties on the Eastern Shore he had been guilty 
of great exactions, extorting from the mer- 
chants unjust and unreasonable fees. This had 
proceeded so far that it was reacting unfavor- 
ably upon commerce, and when foreign traders 
began to avoid entirely that part of the colony, 
the people of Accomack in alarm drew up a 
paper of grievances which they intended to pre- 
sent to the House of Burgesses. Custis one 
day seeing this paper posted in public, flew into 
a great rage and tore it down, at the same time 
shaking his cane at the crowd that had assem- 
bled around him and using many threatening 
words. In this Custis was not only infringing 
on the rights of the people, but he was offering 
a distinct affront to the House of Burgesses. 

68 Bruce, Soc. Life of Va., p. 133. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 57 

Yet so great was the awe that his authority 
and dignity inspired, that the people of Acco- 
mack not only allowed him to keep the paper, 
but "being terrified and affrighted drew up no 
other aggreivances att that time." 69 

Robert Carter was another planter whose 
"extraordinary pride and ambition" made many 
enemies. Governor Nicholson accuses him of 
"using several people haughtily, sometimes 
making the justices of the peace of the county 
wait two or three hours before they can speak 
to him.". . . ."In contempt of him," he adds, 
"he is sometimes called 'King' Carter." 70 

Beyond doubt this haughtiness was chiefly 
the result of the life upon the plantation. The 
command that the planter possessed over the 
lives of scores of servants and slaves could not 
fail to impress him with a feeling of respect for 
his own importance. John Bernard, the trav- 
eller, shows that he understood this matter 
clearly. "Woe," he says, "to the man who 
lives constantly with inferiors ! He is doomed 
never to hear himself contradicted, never to be 

63 Jour, of Burg. 1688, pp. 81, 82; Sainsbury, Calen- 
dar of State Pap., Vol. IV, p. 252; McDonald Papers, 
Vol. VII, pp. 437-441. 

70 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. VIII, p. 56. 



58 THE ARISTOCRACY 

told unwelcome truth, never to sharpen his wits 
and learn to control his temper by argument 
with equals. The Colonial Cavaliers were lit- 
tle kings, and they proved the truth of the say- 
ing of the royal sage of Rome that the most 
difficult of tasks is to lead life well in a pal- 
ace." 71 

Political conditions also tended to the same 
result, for the leading men of the colony were 
possessed of extraordinary influence and 
power. Many of the prominent families of the 
17th century were related to each other and 
they formed a compact little oligarchy that at 
times controlled the affairs of the colony at 
will. 

But as time went on a decided change took 
place in the nature of the Virginian's pride. 
During the 18th century he gradually lost that 
arrogance that had been so characteristic of him 
in the age of Nicholson and Spotswood. At 
the time of the Revolution are found no longer 

71 Compare Voyages dans l'Amerique Septentrion- 
ale, Vol. II, p. 136. "On n'en pourra pas douter, si 
Ton considere qu'une autre cause agit encore en con- 
currence avec la premiere (heredity) : je veux parler 
de l'esclavage; . . . .parce que l'empire qu'on exerce 
fur eux, entretient la vanite & la paresse." 



THE ARISTOCRACY 59 

men that do not hesitate to trample under foot 
the rights of others as Custis, Byrd, and Carter 
had done. Nothing could be more foreign to 
the nature of Washington or Jefferson than 
the haughtiness of the typical Virginia planter 
of an earlier period. But it was arrogance 
only that had been lost, not self-respect or dig- 
nity. The Virginian of the later period had a 
most exalted conception of what a man should 
be, and they respected themselves as exempli- 
fiers of their ideals, but they were always ready 
to accord to others the same reverence they 
paid themselves. The change that had taken 
place is shown in the lack of pretence and self- 
assertion in judges, councillors, in college pres- 
idents and other dignitaries. Thomas Nelson 
Page, in speaking of the fully developed Vir- 
ginia gentleman, says, "There was the founda- 
tion of a certain pride, based on self-respect and 
consciousness of power. There were nearly 
always the firm mouth with its strong lines, the 
calm, placid, direct gaze, the quiet speech of 
one who is accustomed to command and have 
his commands obeyed." 72 

This change was beyond doubt the result of 

"Page, The Old South, p. 157. 



60 THE ARISTOCRACY 

the increased political resistance which the aris- 
tocracy encountered during the 18th century. 
Within a few years after the founding of 
Jamestown the wealthy planters may be noted 
as a body distinct from the other settlers. Im- 
mediately after the downfall of the Virginia 
Company of London they became a powerful 
force in the colony, and when, a few years 
later, Governor Harvey tried to curb them, not 
only did they resist him successfully, but they 
eventually brought upon him financial and po- 
litical ruin. This state of affairs was due 
largely to the vast superiority of the merchant 
settlers to the lower class of immigrants, both 
in intelligence and in wealth. Those English 
traders that made their home in the colony, be- 
came at once leaders politically and socially. 
Not infrequently they became burgesses, jus- 
tices, or even members of the Council after a 
few years' residence only, taking their place 
quite naturally by the side of those that had 
come over previously. This condition of af- 
fairs continued until late in the century. Bacon 
the rebel was made a councillor, although he 
lived in Virginia less than two years alto- 
gether, while the Lees, the Washingtons and 



THE ARISTOCRACY^ 61 

many others obtained places of influence and 
power as soon as they reached the colony. On 
the other hand, the middle class did not become 
a factor of very great importance in the gov- 
ernment until the surrender of the colony to the 
Parliamentary Commissioners in 1652. The 
bulk of the immigrants during the first half of 
the 17th century were indentured servants, 
brought over to cultivate the tobacco fields. 
They came, most of them, from the ignorant 
laboring class of England, and were incapable, 
even after the expiration of their term of in- 
denture, of taking an intelligent part in govern- 
mental affairs. It is true that many free fam- 
ilies of humble means came to the colony in this 
period, but their numbers were not great 
enough to counterbalance the power of the 
leading planters. These families formed the 
neuclus of what later became an energetic mid- 
dle class, but not until their ranks were re- 
cruited by thousands of servants, did they de- 
velop into a really formidable body. 

It was the Commonwealth Period that gave 
to the middle class its first taste of power. 
After the surrender of the colony to Parlia- 
ment, the House of Burgesses was made the 



62 THE ARISTOCRACY 

ruling body in Virginia, in imitation of condi- 
tions in England. Since the Burgesses were 
the representatives of the common people, it 
might naturally be inferred that the rich plant- 
ers would be excluded from any share in the 
government. Such, however, was not the case. 
By a conveniently rapid change of front the 
most prominent men of the colony retained 
much of their old influence, and the rabble, 
lacking leaders of ability, were forced to elect 
them to places of trust and responsibility. But 
the Commonwealth Period helped to organize 
the middle class, to give it a sense of unity and 
a desire for a share in the government. At the 
time of Bacon's Rebellion it had grown in num- 
bers and strength, despite the oppression of 
the Restoration Period, and showed, in a way 
never to be forgotten, that it would no longer 
submit passively to tyranny or injustice. 

Although England entered upon a policy of 
repression immediately after the submission of 
the insurgents, which for some years threat- 
ened to take from the common people every 
vestige of political liberty, it was at this very 
time that the House of Burgesses began that 
splendid struggle for its rights that was eventu- 



THE ARISTOCRACY 63 

ally to make it the supreme power in the colony. 
Even in the waning years of the 17th century it 
is evident that the middle class had become a 
power in political affairs that must always be 
taken into account. The discontented Berke- 
ley party turned to it for support against the 
King's Commissioners after Bacon's Rebellion; 
Culpeper, at the risk of Charles' displeasure, 
compromised with it ; Nicholson sought its sup- 
port in his memorable struggle with the Vir- 
ginia aristocracy. In the 18th century through 
the House of Burgesses its influence slowly but 
steadily advanced. Governor Spotswood had 
once to beg the pardon of the Burgesses for the 
insolence of the members of the Council in 
wearing their hats in the presence of a commit- 
tee of the House. 73 Governor Dinwiddie ex- 
pressed his surprise, when the mace bearer one 
day entered the supreme court, and demanded 
that one of the judges attend upon the House, 
whose servant he was. 74 Before the outbreak 
of the Revolution the House of Burgesses had 
become the greatest power in the colony. • 
It is then a matter of no surprise that the 

78 Compare Jour, of Coun. 1748, pp. 17, 18, and 19. 
u Wm. & Mary Quar., Vol. VI, p. 13. 



64 THE ARISTOCRACY 

rich planters lost the arrogant spirit which had 
formerly characterized them. Long years of 
vigorous opposition from a powerful middle 
class had taught them to respect the privileges 
and feelings of others. They were no longer 
at such a height above their humbler neighbors. 
The spirit of democracy, which was fostered by 
the long resistance to the English government, 
had so pervaded Virginia society, that even 
before the open rupture with the mother coun- 
try many of the aristocratic privileges of the 
old families had been swept away. And when 
the war broke out, the common cause of liberty 
in a sense placed every man upon the same 
footing. An anecdote related by Major An- 
bury, one of the British officers captured at 
Saratoga and brought to Virginia, illustrates 
well the spirit of the times. "From my ob- 
servations," he says, "in my late journey, it 
appeared to me, that before the war, the spirit 
of equality or levelling principle was not so 
prevalent in Virginia, as in the other provinces ; 
and that the different classes of people in the 
former supported a greater distinction than 
those of the latter ; but since the war, that prin- 
ciple seems to have gained great ground in Vir- 



THE ARISTOCRACY 65 

ginia; an instance of it I saw at Col. Ran- 
dolph's at Tuckahoe, where three country 
peasants, who came upon business, entered the 
room where the Colonel and his company were 
sitting, took themselves chairs, drew near the 
fire, began spitting, pulling off their country 
boots all over mud, and then opened their busi- 
ness, which was simply about some continental 
flour to be ground at the Colonel's mill : When 
they were gone, some one observed what great 
liberties they took; he replied it was unavoid- 
able, the spirit of independence was converted 
into equality, and every one who bore arms, es- 
teemed himself upon a footing with his neigh- 
bor, and concluded by saying; 'No doubt, each 
of these men conceives himself, in every re- 
spect, my equal.' " 75 

One of the most fertile sources of error in 
history is the tendency of writers to confound 
the origin of institutions with the conditions 
that brought them into life. In nothing is this 
more apparent than in the various theories ad- 
vanced in regard to the development of chivalry 
during the Middle Ages. The fundamentals 
of chivalry can be traced to the earliest period 

"Anbury, p. 329. 



66 THE ARISTOCRACY 

of German history. Many Teutonic writers, 
imbued with a pride in their ancestors, have 
pointed out the respect for women, the fondness 
for arms, the regard for the oppressed and un- 
fortunate, of the people of the Elbe and the 
Rhine. Chivalry, they say, was but the expan- 
sion, the growth of characteristics natural and 
individual with their forefathers. 76 This is er- 
roneous. The early Germanic customs may 
have contained the germ of chivalry, but that 
germ was given life only by conditions that 
came into operation centuries after the Teutons 
had deserted their old habits and mode of life 
and had taken on some of the features of civili- 
zation. 

Chivalry was the product of feudalism. It 
was that system that gave birth to the noble 
sentiments, the thirst for great achievements, 
the spirit of humanity that arose in the 10th 
and 11th centuries. Feudalism, although it was 
the cause of much that was evil, also produced 
in the hearts of men sentiments that were noble 
and generous. If it delivered Europe into the 
hands of a host of ruthless and savage barons, 
that trod under foot the rights of the common 

78 Guizot, Civ. in Europe, p. 117. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 67 

people, it alone gave rise to the sentiment of 
honor which was so conspicuous from the 10th 
to the 1 3 tli, centuries. 

Similarly it is erroneous to look to England 
for the explanation of chivalry in Virginia. 
This spirit was almost entirely a development 
in the colony. The settlers of the 17th century, 
even of the better class were by no means char- 
acterized by gallantry and honor. The mortal 
enemy of chivalry is commerce, for the prac- 
tical common-sense merchant looks with con- 
tempt upon the Quixotic fancies of a Bayard. 
His daily life, his habits of thought, his asso- 
ciations tend to make him hostile to all that 
glittering fabric of romance reared in the Mid- 
dle Ages. He abhors battles and wars, for they 
are destructive to his trade. He may be honest, 
but he cares little for the idealistic honor of the 
days of knighthood. He ascribes to woman no 
place of superiority in society. We have al- 
ready seen that the Virginia aristocracy had its 
origin largely in the emigration of English 
merchants to the colony, and we should nat- 
urally expect to find the planters of the 17th 
century lacking in the spirit of chivalry. Such 
indeed was the case. 



68 THE ARISTOCRACY 

The Virginians were not a race of fighters. 
It was their misfortune to be subjected to fre- 
quent and murderous attacks from a savage 
race living in close proximity to them, and on 
this account were compelled to keep alive the 
military spirit, but they never entered into war 
with the feeling of joy that characterized the 
warriors of the Middle Ages. Throughout the 
entire colonial period there was a numerous 
body of militia, which was considered the bul- 
wark of the people both against the Indians 
and against attack from European armies. 
Its commanders were selected from the leading 
planters of each community and at times it 
numbered thousands of men. It never, how- 
ever, presented a really formidable fighting 
force, for it was at all times lacking in dis- 
cipline, owing to the fact that the people were 
so scattered and the country so thinly settled 
that it was impossible for them to meet often 
for military exercises. Repeated laws requir- 
ing the militia to drill at stated periods created 
great discontent, and were generally disobeyed. 
The Assembly, even in times of war, shirked 
the responsibility of furnishing the companies 
with arms, while the people were far too in- 



THE ARISTOCRACY 69 

different to purchase them for themselves. At 
times the English government would send guns 
and powder and armor from the royal arsenal, 
and then only would the colony be in a position 
to repel foreign invasion. Governor Nichol- 
son speaks of the utter insufficiency of the 
militia, and spent a large part of his time in re- 
organizing it, but conditions were so adverse 
that he met with little success. Governor Spots- 
wood, who had served under the Duke of Marl- 
borough and was an experienced soldier, also 
endeavored to increase the efficiency of the mi- 
litia and under his leadership better discipline 
was obtained than before, but even he could 
effect no permanent improvement. When the 
test of war came the militia was found to be of 
no practical use. The companies could not be 
assembled quickly enough to repel a sudden in- 
vasion, and when a considerable body was 
gotten together desertion was so common that 
the force immediately melted away. In the 
French and Indian War Governor Dinwiddie 
soon learned that no dependence whatever 
could be placed in the old organization and 
turned his attention to recruiting and arming 
new companies. The Virginia troops that were 



70 THE ARISTOCRACY 

driven from Fort Duquesne, those that fought 
with Braddock, and those that held back the at- 
tacks of the Indians along the frontier of the 
Shenandoah Valley were in no way connected 
with the old militia. 

This distaste of the colonists for war is 
shown clearly by the consistent opposition of 
the Assembly to all measures either of defense 
or of military aggression. On more than one 
occasion they were commanded by the English 
kings to render aid to other colonies in Amer- 
ica. Thus in 1695, when there was grave 
danger that the French would invade New 
York the Virginians were directed to send men 
and money to aid the Northern colony, which 
was a bulwark to all the English possessions in 
America. It was only after repeated and per- 
emptory demands and even threats that any as- 
sistance at all was sent, and then it was miser- 
ably insufficient. In 1696 the burgesses were 
shameless enough to assert that an attempt to 
impress men for service in New York would 
probably be the means of frightening most of 
the young freemen from the colony, even caus- 
ing many to desert their wives and children. 77 

"Jour, of Bour. Apl. 1696. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 71 

Governor Spotswood met with great opposition 
in his attempt to aid South Carolina and North 
Carolina when those colonies were threatened 
with extermination by the savage attacks of 
the Indians. And in later years, when there 
was imminent danger of an invasion of Vir- 
ginia itself by the French with their savage al- 
lies, Governor Dinwiddie was never able to per- 
suade the Assembly to provide adequate means 
of defence. Not until the news of massacres of 
defenceless women and children upon the fron- 
tier struck terror to every family in Virginia 
did the legislators vote money for a body of 
men to drive back the enemy. And even then 
so niggardly were they in their appropriations 
that with the insufficient means granted him 
even the patient and frugal Washington was 
unable to prevent the continuance of the mur- 
derous raids of the Indians. In the Revolu- 
tionary War the same spirit prevailed. Vir- 
ginia was not willing to raise and equip a 
standing army to defend her soil from the 
English invaders and as a consequence fell an 
easy victim to the first hostile army that entered 
her borders. The resistance offered to Corn- 
wallis was shamefully weak, and the Virginians 



72 THE ARISTOCRACY 

had the mortification of seeing their plantations 
and their towns devastated by an army that 
should have been driven back with ease. The 
militia to which the safety of Virginia was en- 
trusted, like similar troops from the other 
states, proved ill disciplined, ill armed and 
cowardly. 78 

Although it was the House of Burgesses that 
offered the most strenuous opposition at all pe- 
riods to the improvement of the military or- 
ganization, a large measure of blame must be 
placed upon that wealthy clique of men repre- 
sented by the Council. The commissioned of- 
ficers were invariably selected from the 
wealthiest and most influential planters, and it 
was they alone that could keep alive the mili- 
tary spirit, that could drill the companies, that 
could enforce the discipline that was so essen- 
tial to efficiency. It is true that the Council 
usually favored the measures proposed by va- 
rious governors for bettering the militia and 
for giving aid to neighboring colonies, but this 
was due more to a desire to keep in harmony 
with the executive than to military ardour. 
And it is significant that when troops were en- 

78 Marshall, Life of George Washington. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 73 

listed for distant expeditions, the wealthy plant- 
ers were conspicuous by their absence. We see 
not the slightest inclination on their part to 
rush into the conflict for the love of fighting 
and adventure that was so typical of the aristo- 
crat of the Middle Ages. They were more 
than content to stay at home to attend to the 
business of the plantation and to leave to hum- 
bler hands the task of defending helpless fam- 
ilies of the frontiers. But the economic and po- 
litical conditions in the colony were destined to 
work a change in this as in other things in the 
Virginia planter. The gradual loss of the mer- 
cantile instinct, the habit of command acquired 
by the control of servants and slaves, and the 
long use of political power, the growth of pa- 
triotism, eventually instilled into him a chiv- 
alric love of warfare not unlike that of the 
knights of old. It is impossible to say when 
this instinct first began to show itself. Perhaps 
the earliest evidence that the warlike spirit was 
stirring in the breasts of the planters is given in 
1756, when two hundred gentlemen, moved by 
the pitiful condition of the defenseless families 
of the Shenandoah Valley, formed a volunteer 
company, and marched against the Indians. It 
is probable that the expedition did not succeed 



74 THE ARISTOCRACY 

in encountering the enemy, but it was of much 
value in animating the lower class of people 
with greater courage. 79 In the Revolutionary 
War the change had become quite apparent. It 
is to the Old Dominion that the colonies turn 
for the commander-in-chief of their armies. 
The Lees, Morgan and other Virginia aristo- 
crats were among the most gallant leaders of the 
American army. But the development was 
even then far from its climax. Not until the 
Civil War do we note that dash, that gallantry, 
and bravery that made the Virginia gentleman 
famous as a warrior. Then it was that the 
chivalrous Stuart and the reckless Mosby ri- 
valed the deeds of Bayard and of Rupert. Then 
it was that each plantation gave forth its wil- 
ling sacrifice of men for the defense of the 
South, and thousands of the flower of Vir- 
ginia aristocracy shed their blood upon the bat- 
tle field. And Virginia produced for this great 
struggle a galaxy of chieftains seldom equalled 
in the world's history. Robert E. Lee, 
"Stonewall" Jackson, Johnston and many other 
great generals show that warfare had become 
natural to the people of the Old Dominion. 

78 Dinwiddie Papers, Vol. II, p. 427. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 75 

Even more striking is the development of 
duelling in Virginia. The history of chivalry in 
Europe is indissolubly connected with thousands 
of tournaments and duels. It was the ambition 
of each knight to increase his fame by triumph- 
ing over as many warriors as possible. He 
looked upon these fights as the greatest pleasure 
of his existence, and his training and education 
were intended largely to prepare him for them. 
As years passed and the feudal baron gave place 
to the aristocratic lord, the tournament was no 
longer indulged in, but as its successor the cus- 
tom of duelling continued unabated. It re- 
mained, as it had been for centuries, the ac- 
knowledged way for gentlemen to settle dif- 
ficulties. At the very time that the best class of 
settlers was coming to Virginia, duelling was 
in high favor with the English aristocracy. It 
was a common event for two gentlemen who 
were suitors for the hand of the same lady to 
settle the matter by mortal combat, and this 
was considered not only proper, but the highest 
compliment that could be paid the lady's 
charms. Angry joustings were frequent in 
places of amusement or even upon the streets. 



76 THE ARISTOCRACY 

In London the ring in Hyde Park, the back of 
Montague House, and the Barns Elms were 
the favorite places for these combats. 80 

That the custom was not continued in Vir- 
ginia adds convincing testimony to the evidence 
that the best class of immigrants to the colony 
were not members of the English aristocracy. 
Had many country gentlemen or noblemen set- 
tled in the Old Dominion, duelling would have 
been as common on the banks of the James as 
it was in London. The most careful investiga- 
tion has been able to bring to light evidence of 
but five or six duels in Virginia during the en- 
tire colonial period. 81 In 1619 Capt. Edward 
Stallings was slain in a duel with Mr. William 
Epes at Dancing Point. Five years later Mr. 
George Harrison fought a duel with Mr. Rich- 
ard Stephens. "There was some words of dis- 
content between him and Mr. Stephens, with 
some blows. Eight or ten days after Mr. Har- 
rison sent a challenge to Stephens to meet him 
in a place, which was made mention of, they 
meeting together it so fell out that Mr. Har- 
rison received a cut in the leg which did some- 

80 Pict. Hist, of Eng., Vol. IV, P- 789. 

81 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. I, p. 216. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 77 

what grieve him, and fourteen days after he 
departed this life." 82 

After this fatal affair the custom of duelling 
died out almost entirely in the colony. Had 
there been many of these encounters frequent 
mention beyond doubt would have been made 
of them. Any deaths resulting from them could 
hardly have escaped mention in the records, 
and the general interest that always attaches 
itself to such affairs would have caused them to 
find a place in the writings of the day. Bever- 
ley, Hugh Jones, John Clayton and other au- 
thors who described the customs of colonial 
Virginia made no mention of duelling. Only 
a few scattered instances of challenges and en- 
counters have been collected, gleaned largely 
from the county records, and these serve to 
show that duelling met with but little favor. 
Most of the challenges were not accepted and 
provoked usually summary and harsh punish- 
ment at the hands of the law. In 1643 a com- 
missioner was disabled from holding office for 
having challenged a councillor. 83 Some years 
later Capt. Thomas Hackett sent a challenge by 

82 Brown, First Rep. in America, p. 582. 

83 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. VIII, p. 69. 



78 THE ARISTOCRACY 

his son-in-law, Richard Denham, to Mr. Daniel 
Fox, while the latter was sitting in the Lancas- 
ter County court. The message was most in- 
sulting in its wording and ended by declaring 
that if Fox "had anything of a gentleman or 
manhood" in him he would render satisfaction 
in a personal encounter with rapiers. One of 
the justices, Major Carter, was horrified at 
these proceedings. He addressed Denham in 
words of harsh reproval, "saying that he knew 
not how his father would acquit himself of an 
action of that nature, which he said he would 
not be ye owner of for a world." Denham 
answered in a slighting way "that his father 
would answer it well enough .... whereupon 
ye court conceivinge ye said Denham to be a 
partye with his father-in-law .... adjudged ye 
said Denham to receive six stripes on his bare 
shoulder with a whip." The course pursued 
by Fox in this affair is of great interest. Had 
duelling been in vogue he would have been 
compelled to accept the challenge or run the 
risk of receiving popular contempt as a coward. 
He could not have ignored the message on 
grounds of social superiority, for Hackett 
ranked as a gentleman. Yet he requested the 



THE ARISTOCRACY 79 

court to arrest Hackett, "him to detain in safe 
custody without baile or mainprize," in order 
to save himself from the risk of a personal at- 
tack. 84 A similar case occurred in 1730, when 
Mr. Solomon White entered complaint in the 
Princess Anne County court against Ro- 
dolphus Melborne for challenging him "with 
sword and pistoll." The court ordered the 
sheriff to arrest Melborne and to keep him in 
custody until he entered bond in the sum of 50 
pounds as security for good behavior for twelve 
months. 85 

But though the Virginia gentleman, in the 
days when he still retained the prosaic nature 
of the merchant, frowned upon duelling, it 
was inevitable that in time he must become one 
of its greatest advocates. The same conditions 
that instilled into him a taste for war, could not 
fail in the end to make him fond of duelling. 
We are not surprised then to find that, at the 
period of the Revolutionary War, duelling be- 
gan to grow in popularity in Virginia and that 
from that time until the Civil War appeals to 

84 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. II, p. 96; 
Bruce, Soc. Life of Va., p. 246. 

85 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. Ill, p. 89. 
Compare McDonald Papers, Vol. V, p. 35. 



80 THE ARISTOCRACY 

the code were both frequent and deadly. Writ- 
ers have sought to find a reason for this change 
in the military customs introduced by a long 
war, or in the influence of the French. There 
can be no doubt, however, that the rapid in- 
crease of duelling at this time was due to the 
fact that conditions were ripe for its reception. 
A spirit had been fostered by the life upon the 
plantation which made it distasteful to gentle- 
men to turn to law for redress for personal in- 
sults. The sense of dignity, of self reliance 
there engendered, made them feel that the only 
proper retaliation against an equal was to be 
found in a personal encounter. 

Perhaps the most beautiful, the most elevat- 
ing feature of the chivalry of the Middle Ages 
was the homage paid to women. The knight 
always held before him the image of his lady 
as an ideal of what was pure and good, and this 
ideal served to make him less a savage and 
more a good and true man. Although he was 
rendered no less brave and warlike by this in- 
fluence, it inclined him to tenderness and mercy, 
acting as a curb to the ferocity that in his 
fathers had been almost entirely unrestrained. 
It made him recognize the sacredness of 



THE ARISTOCRACY 81 

womanhood. The true value of the wife and 
the mother had never before been known. In 
none of the ancient communities did women 
attain the position of importance that they oc- 
cupied in the age of chivalry, for neither the 
Roman matron nor the Greek mother could 
equal the feudal lady in dignity and influence. 

And this was the direct outcome of the 
feudal system. The ancient baron led a life of 
singular isolation, for he was separated in his 
fortress home from frequent intercourse with 
other men of equal rank, and around him were 
only his serfs and retainers, none of whom he 
could make his companions. The only equals 
with whom he came in contact day after day 
were his wife and children. Naturally he 
turned to them for comradeship, sharing with 
them his joys and confiding to them his sor- 
rows. If he spent much of his time in hunting, 
or in fishing, or in fighting he always returned 
to the softening influence of his home, and it 
was inevitable, under these conditions, that the 
importance of the female sex should increase. 86 

As we have seen, the Virginia plantation 
bore a striking analogy to the feudal estate. 

86 Guizot, Hist, of Civ. in Europe, p. 106. 



82 THE ARISTOCRACY 

The planter, like the baron, lived a life of iso- 
lation, coming into daily contact not even with 
his nearest neighbors. His time was spent with 
his servants and slaves. He too could turn only 
to his family for companionship, and inevitably, 
as homage and respect for women had grown 
up among the feudal barons, so it developed in 
Virginia. 

There is no proof that the colonists of the 
17th century regarded womanhood in any 
other than a commonplace light. They as- 
signed to their wives and daughters the same 
domestic lives that the women of the middle 
classes of England led at that time. Pre- 
dominated by the instinct of commerce and 
trade, they had little conception of the chiv- 
alric view of the superiority of the gentle sex, 
for in this as in other things they were 
prosaic and practical. 

The early Virginians did not hesitate to sub- 
ject gossiping women to the harsh punishment 
of the ducking stool. In 1662 the Assembly 
passed an Act requiring wives that brought 
judgments on their husbands for slander to be 
punished by ducking. 87 In 1705 and again in 

87 Hening, Statutes, Vol. II, p. 66. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 83 

1748 the county courts were authorized to con- 
struct ducking stools if they thought fit. 88 
That the practice was early in vogue is shown 
by the records of the county courts. We read 
in the Northampton records for 1634 the fol- 
lowing, "Upon due examination it is thought 
fitt by the board that said Joane Butler shall be 
drawen over the Rings Creeke at the starn of a 
boat or canoux." 

How inconsistent with all the ideals of chiv- 
alry was that action of Bacon in his war with 
Governor Berkeley which won for his men the 
contemptuous appellation of "White Aprons!" 
Bacon had made a quick march on Jamestown 
and had surprised his enemies there. His force, 
however, was so small that he set to work im- 
mediately constructing earthworks around his 
camp. While his men were digging, "by sev- 
eral small partyes of horse (2 or 3 in a party, 
for more he could not spare) he fetcheth into 
his little league, all the prime men's wives, 
whose husbands were with the Governour, (as 
Coll. Bacons lady, Madm. Bray, Madm. Page, 
Madm. Ballard, and others) which the next 
morning he presents to the view of there hus- 

48 Hening, Statutes, Vol. Ill, p. 268, Vol. V, p. 528. 



84 THE ARISTOCRACY 

bands and ffriends in towne, upon the top of 
the smalle worke hee had cast up in the night ; 
where he caused them to tarey till he had fin- 
ished his defense against his enemies shott, .... 
which when completed, and the Governour 
understanding that the gentle women were 
withdrawne in to a place of safety, he sends 
out some 6 or 700 of his soulders, to beate 
Bacon out of his trench." 89 

The fact that Bacon's family was one of 
great prominence in the colony makes this un- 
gallant action all the more significant. His 
uncle, Nathaniel Bacon, was a leader in political 
affairs, being one of Berkeley's most trusted 
advisers. He himself had been a member of 
the Council. It is true that his harsh treatment 
of the ladies brought upon him some censure, 
yet it is highly indicative of the lack of chiv- 
alry of the times, that a gentleman should have 
been willing to commit such a deed. How ut- 
terly impossible this would have been to George 
Washington or Thomas Jefferson, typical Vir- 
ginians a hundred years later ! 

It remained to Berkeley, however, the so- 

89 Force, Hist. Tracts, Vol. I, Our Late Troubles, 
p. 8. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 85 

called "Cavalier Governor" of Virginia, to 
strike the most brutal blow at womanhood. 
After the failure of Bacon's Rebellion, when 
the insurgents were being hunted down by the 
implacable anger of the Governor, Major 
Chiesman, one of the most prominent of the 
rebels, was captured. "When the Major was 
brought into the Governours presence, and by 
him demanded, what made him to ingage in 
Bacon's designs? Before that the Major could 
frame an answer to the Governours demand; 
his wife steps in and tould his honour that it 
was her provocations that made her husband 
joyne in the cause that Bacon contended for; 
ading, that if he had not bin influenced by her 
instigations, he had never don that which he 
had done. Therefore (upon her bended knees) 
she desired of his honour, that since what her 
husband had done, was by her means, and so, 
by consequence, she most guilty, that she might 
be hanged, and he pardoned." Had Berkeley 
had one atom of gallantry or chivalry in his 
nature, he would have treated this unfortunate 
woman with, courtesy. Even though he con- 
demned her husband to the gallows, he would 
have raised her from her knees and palliated 



86 THE ARISTOCRACY 

her grief as best he could with kind words. 
That he spurned her with a vile insult shows 
how little this "Cavalier" understood of the 
sacredness of womanhood. 90 

Some years later an incident occurred which, 
as Bishop Meade well remarks, speaks ill for 
the chivalry and decorum of the times. 91 A 
dispute arose between Col. Daniel Parke and 
Commissary Blair, the rector of the church at 
Williamsburg - . Mr. Blair's wife, having no 
pew of her own in the church, was invited by 
Mr. Ludlow, of Green Spring, to sit with his 
family during the services. Col. Parke was the 
son-in-law of Mr. Ludlow, and one Sunday, 
with the purpose of insulting the rector, he 
seized Mrs. Blair rudely by the arm, and 
dragged her out of the pew, saying she should 
no longer sit there. This ungallant act is made 
all the more cowardly by the fact that Mr. Blair 
was not present at the time. We learn with 
pleasure that Mr. Ludlow, who was also prob- 
ably absent, was greatly offended at his son- 
in-law for his brutal conduct. The incident is 

80 Force, Hist. Tracts, Vol. I, Ingram's Proceed- 
ings, p. 34. 
"Meade, Vol. II, pp. 180, 181. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 87 

the more suggestive in that both Col. Parke and 
Mrs. Blair were members of leading families in 
the colony. 

In matters of courtship there was little 
of romance and chivalry. Women did not care 
for the formalities and petty courtesies of the 
gallant suitor. Alsop, in describing the maids 
of Maryland, whose social life was quite sim- 
ilar to that of their sisters of Virginia, says, 
"All complimental courtships drest up in criti- 
cal rarities are meer strangers to them. Plain 
wit comes nearest to their genius; so that he 
that intends to court a Maryland girle, must 
have something more than the tautologies of a 
long-winded speech to carry on his design, or 
else he may fall under the contempt of her 
frown and his own windy discourse." 

We will not attempt to trace through suc- 
cessive years the chivalric view of womanhood. 
The movement was too subtle, the evidences 
too few. At the period of the Revolutionary 
War, however, it is apparent that a great 
change was taking place. The Virginia gentle- 
man, taught by the experience of many years, 
was beginning to understand aright the rever- 
ence due the nobleness, the purity, the gentle- 



88 THE ARISTOCRACY 

ness of woman. He was learning to accord to 
his wife the unstinted and sincere homage that 
her character deserved. 

It is unfortunate that we should be compelled 
to rely to so great an extent upon the testimony 
of travelers for our data regarding the do- 
mestic life of the Virginia aristocracy of the 
18th century. These writers were frequently 
superficial observers and almost without ex- 
ception failed to understand and sympathize 
with the society of the colony. Some were 
prejudiced against the Virginians even before 
they set foot upon the soil of the Old Dominion, 
and their dislike is reflected in their writings, 
while few tarried long enough, to grasp fully 
the meaning of the institutions and customs of 
the people. They dwelt long on those things 
that they found displeasing, and passed over in 
silence those distinctive virtues with which they 
were not in harmony. It is not surprising then 
that they failed to grasp the dignity and im- 
portance of the place filled by the Virginia 
woman. When they spoke of her their criti- 
cisms were usually favorable, but only too often 
they ignored her entirely. The gifted John 
Bernard, however, was more penetrating than 



THE ARISTOCRACY 89 

the others. "Of the planters' ladies," he said, 
"I must speak in terms of unqualified praise; 
they had an easy kindness of manner, as far 
removed from rudeness as from reserve, which 
being natural to them .... was the more ad- 
mirable. . . .To the influence of their society I 
chiefly attribute their husbands' refinement." 92 
To understand fully the sentiment of re- 
spect for womanhood that finally became so 
pronounced a trait of the Virginia gentleman, 
it is necessary to turn to Southern writers. 
Thomas Nelson Page, in "The Old South," 
draws a beautiful and tender picture of the 
ante-bellum matron and her influence over her 
husband. "What she was," he says, "only her 
husband knew, and even he stood before her in 
dumb, half-amazed admiration, as he might 
before the inscrutable vision of a superior be- 
ing. What she really was, was known only to 
God. Her life was one long act of devotion — 
devotion to God, devotion to her husband, de- 
votion to her children,. . . .devotion to all hu- 
manity. She was the head and front of the 
church ; . . . . she regulated her servants, fed the 
poor, nursed the sick, consoled the bereaved. 

92 Bernard, Retrospections of America, p. 150. 



90 THE ARISTOCRACY 

The training of her children was her work. 
She watched over them, led them, governed 
them .... She was at the beck and call of every 
one, especially her husband, to whom she was 
guide, philosopher, and friend." 

Dr. George Bagby pays to the Virginia 
woman a tribute not less beautiful. "My ram- 
bles before the war made me the guest of Vir- 
ginians of all grades. Brightest by far of the 
memories of those days .... is that of the Vir- 
ginia mother. Her delicacy, tenderness, fresh- 
ness, gentleness; the absolute purity of her 
life and thought, typified in the spotless neat- 
ness of her apparel and her every surrounding, 
it is quite impossible to convey. Withal, there 
was about her a naivete mingled with sadness, 
that gave her a surpassing charm." 93 

Further evidence is unnecessary. Enough 
has been said to show clearly that in the matter 
of gallantry a great change took place among 
the wealthy Virginia planters during the co- 
lonial period; that in the 17th century they 
were by no means chivalrous in their treatment 
of women; that at the time of the Revolution 
and in succeeding years homage to the gentler 

98 Bagby, The Old Va. Gentleman, p. 125. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 91 

sex was an important part of the social code. 
It is but one more link in the long chain of evi- 
dence that shows that society in Virginia was 
not an imitation of society in England, but was 
a development in the colony; that the Virginia 
aristocracy was not a part of the English aris- 
tocracy transplanted to the shores of the New 
World, but a growth produced by local condi- 
tions. 

A study of the spirit of honor in the colony 
leads us to the same conclusion. It is not dif- 
ficult to demonstrate that during the greater 
part of the colonial period the Virginia aris- 
tocracy was not characterized by the chivalric 
conception of what was honorable. The mer- 
cantile atmosphere that they brought with them 
from England was not well suited to this spirit. 
None were quicker to seize an unfair advantage 
in a bargain, and the English and Dutch mer- 
chants that traded with the Virginians made 
repeated complaints of unfair treatment. So 
great were their losses by the system of credit 
then in vogue in the colony that it was the cus- 
tom for traders to employ factors, whose busi- 
ness it was to recover bad debts from the plant- 
ers, and prolonged lawsuits became very fre- 



92 THE ARISTOCRACY 

quent. The use of tobacco as money caused a 
great amount of trouble, and the Virginians 
were not slow to take advantage of any fluctu- 
ation in the value of their medium of exchange. 
This was the occasion of great injustice and 
suffering. It was the standing complaint of the 
clergy that they were defrauded of a part of 
their salaries at frequent intervals by the vary- 
ing price of tobacco. 

Accusations of frauds in regard to weights 
were also made against the planters, and this 
species of deception at one time was so general, 
that it became necessary to pass a special law 
declaring the English statute concerning 
weights to be in force in Virginia. The Act is 
as follows, "To prevent the great abuse and de- 
ceit by false styllyards in this colony, It is en- 
acted by this Assembly, That whoever shall 
use false stillyards willingly shall pay unto the 
party grieved three fold damages and cost of 
suit, and shall forfeit one thousand pounds of 
tobacco." 94 

It is not necessary to assume, however, that 
the Virginia planters were noted for dishonesty 
in matters of business. They were neither bet- 

94 Hening's Statutes, Vol. I, p. 391. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 93 

ter not worse than merchants in other parts of 
the world or in other times. It was their daily 
life, their associations and habits of thought 
that made it impossible for them to see in an 
ideal light the highest conceptions of honor. 

In their political capacity the leading men of 
the colony were frequently guilty of inexcusable 
and open fraud. Again and again they made 
use of their great influence and power to ap- 
propriate public funds to their private use, to 
escape the payment of taxes, to obtain under 
false pretenses vast tracts of land. 

After Bacon's Rebellion, when the King's 
Commissioners were receiving the complaints 
of the counties, from all parts of the colony 
came accusations of misappropriated funds. 
The common people asserted, with an earnest- 
ness and unanimity that carry conviction, that 
throughout the second period of Governor 
Berkeley's administration large quantities of 
tobacco had been collected from them which 
had served only to enrich certain influential in- 
dividuals. Other evidence tends to corroborate 
these charges. In 1672, the Assembly passed a 
bill for the repairing of forts in the colony, and 



94 THE ARISTOCRACY 

entrusted the work to associations of wealthy- 
planters, who were empowered to levy as 
heavy taxes in the various counties as they 
thought necessary. Although large sums of 
money were collected under this Act, very little 
of it was expended in repairing the forts and 
there is no reason to doubt that much of it was 
stolen. Similar frauds were perpetrated in con- 
nection with an Act for encouraging manufac- 
ture. The Assembly decided to establish and 
run at public expense tanworks and other in- 
dustrial plants, and these too were entrusted to 
wealthy and influential men. Most of these es- 
tablishments were never completed and none 
were put in successful operation and this was 
due largely to open and shameless embezzle- 
ment. 95 The common people, emboldened by 
promises of protection by Governor Jeffries, 
did not hesitate to bring forward charges of 
fraud against some of the most influential men 
of the colony. Col. Edward Hill, who had been 
one of Berkeley's chief supporters, was the ob- 
ject of their bitterest attack. They even ac- 

05 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. Ill, pp. 136, 
141, 142. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 95 

cused him of stealing- money that had been ap- 
propriated for the repairing of roads. Hill de- 
fended himself vigorously, but there can be 
little doubt that he was to some extent guilty. 96 
The Council members were the boldest of 
all in dishonesty, for they did not scruple to 
defraud even the English, government. There 
was a tax on land in the colony called the quit 
rents, the proceeds of which went to the king. 
Since there was very little coin in Virginia, this 
tax was usually paid in tobacco. Except on 
rare occasions the quit rents were allowed to 
remain in the colony to be drawn upon for va- 
rious governmental purposes, and for this rea- 
son it was convenient to sell the tobacco before 
shipping it to England. These sales were con- 
ducted by the Treasurer and through his con- 
nivance the councillors were frequently able to 
purchase all the quit rents tobacco at very low 
prices. In case the sale were by auction, intim- 
idation was used to prevent others than Coun- 
cil members from bidding. In 1697, Edward 
Chilton testified before the Lords Commission- 
ers of Trade and Plantations that the quit, rents 
had brought but four or six shillings per hun- 

96 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. Ill, p. 143. 



96 THE ARISTOCRACY 

clred pounds, although the regular price of to- 
bacco was twenty shilling. 97 

The wealthy planters consistently avoided the 
payment of taxes. Their enormous power in 
the colonial government made this an easy 
matter, for the collectors and sheriffs in the 
various counties found it convenient not to 
question their statements of the extent of their 
property, while none would dare to prosecute 
them even when glaring cases of fraud came to 
light. Estates of fifty or sixty thousand acres 
often yielded less in quit rents than plantations 
of one-third their size. 98 Sometimes the plant- 
ers refused to pay taxes at all on their land and 
no penalty was inflicted on them. Chilton de- 
clared that the Virginians would be forced to 
resign their patents to huge tracts of country 
if the government should demand the arrears of 
quit rents. 99 

Even greater frauds were perpetrated by 
prominent men in securing patents for land. 
The law required that the public territory 
should be patented only in small parcels, that a 

97 Sainsbury, Cal. of State Pap., Vol. V, pp. 334, 
336; 360-2. 

98 Sainsbury, Cal. of State Pap., Vol. V, pp. 341-5. 
"Sainsbury, Cal. of State Pap., Vol. V, pp. 260-2. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 97 

house should be built upon each grant, and that 
a part should be put under cultivation. All 
these provisions were continually neglected. It 
was no uncommon thing for councillors to 
obtain patents for twenty or thirty thousand 
acres, and sometimes they owned as much as 
sixty thousand acres. They neglected fre- 
quently to erect houses on these estates, or, if 
they wished to keep within the limits of the 
law, they built but slight shanties, so small and 
ill constructed that no human being could in- 
habit them. On one grant of 27,017 acres the 
house cost less than ten shillings. In another 
case a sheriff found in one county 30,000 acres 
upon which there was nothing which could be 
distrained for quit rents. At times false names 
were made use of in securing patents in order 
to avoid the restrictions of the law. 1 

Amid these acts of deception and fraud one 
deed is conspicuous. Col. Philip Ludwell had 
brought into the colony forty immigrants and 
according to a law which had been in force 
ever since the days of the London Company, 
this entitled him to a grant of two thousand 
acres of land. After securing the patent, he 

1 Sainsbury, Cal. of State Pap., Vol. V, pp. 360-2. 



98 THE ARISTOCRACY 

changed the record with his own hand by add- 
ing one cipher each to the forty and the two 
thousand, making them four hundred and 
twenty thousand respectively. In this way he 
obtained ten times as much land as he was en- 
titled to and despite the fact that the fraud was 
notorious at the time, so great was his influence 
that the matter was ignored and his rights 
were not disputed. 2 

Alexander Spotswood was guilty of a theft 
even greater than that of Ludwell. In 1722, 
just before retiring from the governorship, he 
made out a patent for 40,000 acres in Spotsyl- 
vania County to Messrs. Jones, Clayton and 
Hickman. As soon as he quitted the executive 
ofhce these men conveyed the land to him, re- 
ceiving possibly some small reward for their 
trouble. In a similar way he obtained posses- 
sion of another tract of 20,000 acres. Gov- 
ernor Drysdale exposed the matter before the 
Board of Trade and Plantations, but Spots- 
wood's influence at court was great enough to 
protect him from punishment. 3 

The commonness of fraud of this kind 

2 Sainsbury, Cal. of State Pap., Vol. V, pp. 360-2. 
s Sainsbury, Cal. of State Pap., Vol. IX, pp. 131-2. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 99 

among the Virginia planters of the earlier pe- 
riod does not necessarily stamp them as being 
conspicuously dishonest. They were subjected 
to great and unusual temptations. Their vast 
power and their immunity from punishment, 
made it easy for them to enrich themselves at 
the public expense, while their sense of honor, 
deprived of the support of expediency, was not 
great enough to restrain them. The very men 
that were the boldest in stealing public land or 
in avoiding the tax collector might have recoiled 
from an act of private dishonesty of injustice. 
However, it would be absurd in the face of the 
facts here brought forth, to claim that they 
were characterized by an ideal sense of honor. 
But in this as in other things a change took 
place in the course of time. As the self-re- 
spect of the Virginian became with him a 
stronger instinct, his sense of honor was more 
pronounced, and he gradually came to feel that 
deceit and falsehood were beneath him. Used 
to the respect and admiration of all with whom 
he came in contact, he could not descend to ac- 
tions that would lower him in their estimation. 
Certain it is that a high sense of honor became 



100 THE ARISTOCRACY 

eventually one of the most pronounced char- 
acteristics of the Virginians. 

Nothing can demonstrate this more clearly 
than the "honor system" that came into vogue 
in William and Mary College. The Old Ox- 
ford system of espionage which was at first 
used, gradually fell into disuse. The proud 
young Virginians deemed it an insult for pry- 
ing professors to watch over their every action, 
and the faculty eventually learned that they 
could trust implicitly in the students' honor. 
In the Rules of the College, published in 1819, 
there is an open recognition of the honor sys- 
tem. The wording is as follows, "Any stu- 
dent may be required to declare his guilt or 
innocence as to any particular offence of which 
he may be suspected .... And should the per- 
petrator of any mischief, in order to avoid de- 
tection, deny his guilt, then may the Society 
require any student to give evidence on his 
honor touching this foul enormity that the col- 
lege may not be polluted by the presence of 
those that have showed themselves equally re- 
gardless of the laws of honour, the principles 
of morality and the precepts of religion." 4 

4 Wm. & Mary Quar., Vol. IX, p. 194. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 101 

How potent an influence for good was this 
sense of honor among the students of the col- 
lege is shown even more strikingly by an ad- 
dress of Prof. Nathaniel Beverley Tucker to 
his law class in 1834. "If," he says, "There 
be anything by which the University of Wil- 
liam and Mary has been advantageously dis- 
tinguished, it is the liberal and magnanimous 
character of its discipline. It has been the 
study of its professors to cultivate at the same 
time the intellect, the principles, and the de- 
portment of the student, labouring with equal 
diligence to infuse the spirit of the scholar and 
the spirit of the gentleman. As such we re- 
ceive and treat him and resolutely refuse to 
know him in any other character. He is not 
harrassed with petty regulations; he is not in- 
sulted and annoyed by impertinent surveillance. 
Spies and informers have no countenance 
among us. We receive no accusation but from 
the conscience of the accused. His honor is 
the only witness to which we appeal; and 
should he be even capable of prevarication or 
falsehood, we admit no proof of the fact. But 
I beg you to observe, that in this cautious and 
forbearing spirit of our legislation, you have 



102 THE ARISTOCRACY 

not only proof that we have no disposition to 
harrass you with unreasonable requirements, 
but a pledge that such regulations as we have 
found it necessary to make will be en- 
forced .... The effect of this system in in- 
spiring a high and scrupulous sense of honor, 
and a scorn of all disingenuous artifice, has 
been ascertained by long experience." 5 

A society in which grew up such a system 
as this could have no place for the petty ar- 
tifices of the trader nor the frauds of leading 
men in public affairs. It is clear that at this 
period the old customs had passed away; that 
there was a new atmosphere in Virginia; that 
the planter was no longer a merchant but a 
Cavalier. The commercial spirit had become 
distinctly distasteful to him, and he criticised 
bitterly in his northern neighbors the habits 
and methods that had characterized his own 
forefathers in the 17th century. Governor 
Tyler, in 1810, said in addressing the Legis- 
lature, "Commerce is certainly beneficial to 
society in a secondary degree, but it produces 
also what is called citizens of the world — the 
worst citizens in the world." And in public 

6 Wm. & Mary Quar., Vol. VI, p. 184. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 103 

affairs honesty and patriotism took the place 
of deceit and fraud. Even in the Revolu- 
tionary period the change is apparent, and long 
before the advent of the Civil War the very 
memory of the old order of affairs had passed 
away. The Virginia gentleman in the 19th 
century was the soul of honor. Thomas Nel- 
son Page says, "He was proud, but never 
haughty except to dishonor. To that he was 
inexorable .... He was chivalrous, he was gen- 
erous, he was usually incapable of fear or 
meanness. To be a Virginia gentleman was 
the first duty." 6 The spirit of these men is 
typified in the character of Robert E. Lee. 
To this hero of the Southern people dishonesty 
was utterly impossible. After the close of the 
Civil War, when he was greatly in need of 
money he was offered the presidency of an in- 
surance company. Word was sent him that 
his lack of experience in the insurance busi- 
ness would not matter, as the use of his name 
was all the company desired of him. Lee 
politely, but firmly, rejected this proposal, for 
he saw that to accept would have been to 

6 Page, The Old South, p. 158. 



104 THE ARISTOCRACY 

capitalize the homage and reverence paid him 
by the people of the South. 

Along with the instinct of pride and the 
spirit of chivalry in the Virginia planters de- 
veloped the power of commanding men. 
Among the immigrants of the 17th century 
leardership was distinctly lacking, and during 
almost all the colonial period there was a 
decided want of great men. Captain John 
Smith, Governor William Berkeley, Nathaniel 
Bacon and Alexander Spotswood are the only 
names that stand out amid the general medi- 
ocrity of the age. If we look for other men 
of prominence we must turn to Robert Bever- 
ley, Philip Ludwell, William Byrd II, James 
Blair. These men played an important part 
in the development of the colony, but they are 
practically unknown except to students of Vir- 
ginia history. 

What a contrast is presented by a glance at 
the great names of the latter part of the 18th 
century. The commonplace Virginia planters 
had then been transformed into leaders of 
men. When the Revolution came it was to 
them that the colonies looked chiefly for guid- 
ance and command, and Washington, Jefferson, 



THE ARISTOCRACY 105 

Henry, Mason, the Lees and many other Vir- 
ginians took the most active part in the great 
struggle that ended in the overthrow of the 
sway of England and the establishment of the 
independence of the colonies. Washington was 
the great warrior, Jefferson the apostle of free- 
dom, Henry the orator of the Revolution. 
And when the Union had been formed it was 
still Virginia that furnished leaders to the 
country. Of the first five presidents four were 
Virginia planters. 

This transformation was due partly to the 
life upon the plantation. The business of the 
Virginia gentleman from early youth was to 
command. An entire community looked to him 
for direction and maintenance, and scores or 
even hundreds of persons obeyed him implicitly. 
He was manager of all the vast industries of 
his estate, directing his servants and slaves in 
all the details of farming, attending to the 
planting, the curing, the casing of tobacco, the 
cultivation of wheat and corn, the growing 
of fruits, the raising of horses, cattle, sheep 
and hogs. He became a master architect, hav- 
ing under him a force of carpenters, masons 
and mechanics. Some of the wealthiest Vir- 



106 THE ARISTOCRACY 

ginians directed in every detail the construction 
of those stately old mansions that were the 
pride of the colony in the 18th century. Thus 
Thomas Jefferson was both the architect and 
builder of his home at Monticello, and gave to 
it many months of his time in the prime of his 
life. 

The public life of the aristocrat also tended 
to develop in him the power of command. If 
he were appointed to the Council he found 
himself in possession of enormous power, and 
in a position to resist the ablest of governors, 
or even the commands of the king. In all that 
he did, in private and public affairs, he was 
leader. His constant task was to command 
and in nothing did he occupy a subservient po- 
sition. No wonder that, in the course of time, 
he developed into a leader of men, equal to the 
stupendous undertaking of shaking off the yoke 
of England and laying the foundations of a 
new nation. 

The magnificence with which the members 
of the aristocracy in the 18th century sur- 
rounded themselves, and the culture and polish 
of their social life are not so distinctly the re- 
sult of local conditions. The customs, the 



THE ARISTOCRACY 107 

tastes, the prejudices that were brought over 
from England were never entirely effaced. 
The earliest immigrants established on the 
banks of the James a civilization as similar in 
every respect to that of the mother country as 
their situation would permit. Had it not been 
for economic and climatic conditions there 
would have grown up amid the wilderness of 
America an exact reproduction of England in 
miniature. As it was, the colonists infused 
into their new life the habits, moral standards, 
ideas and customs of the old so firmly that 
their influence is apparent even at the present 
day. 

And this imitation of English life was con- 
tinued even after the period of immigration was 
passed. The constant and intimate intercourse 
with the mother country made necessary by 
commercial affairs had a most important influ- 
ence upon social life. Hugh Jones, writing of 
society in Governor Spotswood's time, says : 
"The habits, life, customs, computations &c 
of the Virginians are much the same as about 
London, which they esteem their home; the 
planters generally talk good English without 
idiom and tone and can discourse handsomely 



108 THE ARISTOCRACY 

upon most common subjects; and conversing 
with persons belonging - to trade and naviga- 
tion in London, for the most part they are much 
civilized." Again he says, "They live in the 
same neat manner, dress after the same modes, 
and behave themselves exactly as the gentry 
in London." 

Nor had this spirit of imitation become less 
apparent at the period of the Revolution, or 
even after. Their furniture, their silver ware, 
their musical instruments, their coaches and 
even their clothes were still imported from 
England and were made after the latest Eng- 
lish fashions. John Bernard noted with as- 
tonishment that their favorite topics of con- 
versation were European. "I found," he says, 
"men leading secluded lives in the woods of 
Virginia perfectly au fait as to the literary, 
dramatic, and personal gossip of London and 
Paris." The lack of good educational facilities 
in Virginia led many of the wealthy planters to 
send their sons to England to enter the excel- 
lent schools or universities there. Even after 
the establishment of William and Mary College, 
the advantages to be derived from several 
years' residence in the Old World, induced 



THE ARISTOCRACY 109 

parents to send their sons to Oxford or Cam- 
bridge. The culture, the ideas and habits there 
acquired by the young Virginia aristocrats ex- 
erted a powerful influence upon society in the 
Old Dominion. 

But the peculiar conditions of the new 
country could not fail to modify profoundly 
the life of the colonists. Despite the intimacy 
with England and despite the tenacity with 
which the people clung to British customs, Vir- 
ginia society in both the 17th and 18th centuries 
was different in many respects from that of the 
mother country. The absence of towns elim- 
inated from colonial life much that was es- 
sentially English. There could be no counter- 
part of the coffee house, the political club, the 
literary circle. And even rural conditions 
were different. The lack of communication and 
the size of the plantations could not fail to pro- 
duce a social life unlike that of the thickly set- 
tled country districts of England. 

We note in Virginia a marked contrast be- 
tween the 17th and 18th centuries in the mode 
of living of the planters. In the first hundred 
years of the colony's existence there was a con- 
spicuous lack of that elegance in the houses, 



1 10 THE ARISTOCRACY 

the furniture, the vehicles, the table ware, etc., 
that was so much in evidence at the time of 
the Revolution. This was due in part to the 
newness of the country. It was impossible 
amid the forests of America, where artisans 
were few and unskillful, to imitate all the lux- 
uries of England, and the planters were as yet 
too busily employed in reducing the resources 
of the country to their needs to think of more 
than the ordinary comforts of life. Moreover, 
the wealth of the colony was by no means 
great. Before the end of the century some of 
the planters had accumulated fortunes of some 
size, but there were few that could afford to 
indulge in the costly and elegant surroundings 
that became so common later. And the own- 
ers of newly acquired fortunes were often fully 
satisfied with the plain and unpretentious life 
to which they were accustomed and not in- 
clined to spend their money for large houses, 
fine furniture, or costly silver ware. As time 
went on, however, the political and social su- 
premacy of the aristocracy, the broader educa- 
tion of its members, and the great increase in 
wealth conspired to produce in the colony a love 



THE ARISTOCRACY 1 1 1 

of elegance that was second only to that of the 
French nobility. 

During the 17th century the houses even of 
the wealthiest planters were made of wood. 
Despite the fact that bricks were manufactured 
in the colony and could be had at a reasonable 
price, the abundance of timber on all sides made 
the use of that material almost universal during 
the greater part of the colonial period. Shin- 
gles were used for the roof, although slate was 
not unknown. The partitions in the dwellings 
were first covered with a thick layer of tena- 
cious mud and then whitewashed. Sometimes 
there were no partitions at all as was the case 
in a house mentioned by William Fitzhugh. 
This, however, was not usual and we find that 
most of the houses of the wealthiest planters 
contained from four to seven compartments of 
various sizes. The residence of Governor 
William Berkeley at Green Spring contained 
six rooms. Edmund Cobbs, a well-to-do 
farmer, lived in a house consisting of a hall and 
kitchen on the lower floor and one room above 
stairs. In the residence of Nathaniel Bacon, 
Sr., were five chambers, a hall, a kitchen, a 



1 12 THE ARISTOCRACY 

dairy and a storeroom. The apartments in the 
house of Mathew Hubbard, a wealthy planter 
of York County, consisted of a parlor and hall, 
a chamber, a kitchen and buttery. Robert Bev- 
erley, who played so important a role in Ba- 
con's Rebellion and in the political struggles 
following that uprising, resided in a house 
which contained three chambers, a dairy, a 
kitchen and the overseer's room. The house 
of William Fauntleroy, a wealthy land owner, 
contained three chambers, a hall, a closet and a 
kitchen. 7 

The surroundings of the planters' residences 
were entirely lacking in ornament. In the im- 
mediate vicinity of the house were usually 
grouped stable, hen house, kitchen, milk house, 
servants' house and dove-cote. Near at hand 
also was to be found the garden, which was 
devoted to both vegetables and flowers. Around 
it were always placed strong palings to keep 
out the hogs and cattle which were very nu- 
merous and were allowed to wander unre- 
strained. 8 

The furniture of the planters was of fairly 

7 Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va. Vol. II, p. 145-158. ' 

8 Ibid, Vol. II, pp. 160-161. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 113 

good quality, as most of it was imported from 
England. The beds were similar to those used 
in the mother country, ranging from the little 
trundle-bed to the great-bed of the main cham- 
ber, which was usually surrounded by curtains 
upheld by a rod. Rugs were quite common, but 
were of very poor quality, being made fre- 
quently of worsted yarn or cotton. Various 
materials were used in making couches. Some 
were of hides, some of tanned leather, some of 
embroidered Russian leather. As a substitute 
for wardrobes or closets in every bed room 
were chests, in which were kept the most 
costly articles of clothing, the linen, trinkets of 
value and occasionally plate. Chairs of various 
kinds were used, the most costly being the 
Russian leather chair and the Turkey-worked 
chair. In the houses of the wealthiest planters 
the walls were sometimes hung with tapestry. 9 
When the families of the planters were large, 
which was frequently the case, their little 
houses were exceedingly crowded. Beds are 
found in every room except in the kitchen. In 
the parlor or reception room for guests are not 
only beds, but chests of clothing and linen, 

8 Ibid, Vol. II, pp. 163-166. 



1 14 THE ARISTOCRACY 

while in the hall which was used also as a din- 
ing room, are flock-beds, chests, guns, pistols, 
swords, drums, saddles, and bridles. The 
chamber contains every variety of article in 
use in the household. One of the rooms in the 
house of Thomas Osborn contained a bedstead 
with feather-bed, bolster, rug, blanket and 
sheets, two long table cloths, twenty-eight nap- 
kins, four towels, one chest, two warming pans, 
four brass candle-sticks, four guns, a carbine 
and belt, a silver beaker, three tumblers, twelve 
spoons, one sock and one dram cup. 10 

The utensils in use in the dining room and 
kitchen were usually made of pewter, this ma- 
terial being both cheap and durable. Even 
upon the tables of the wealthiest planters were 
found sugar-pots, castors, tumblers, spoons, 
dishes, ladles, knives and various other articles 
all of pewter. Silver, however, was not un- 
known. In the closing years of the 17th cen- 
tury the possession of silver plate and silver 
table-ware was becoming more and more fre- 
quent. 11 

As the wealth of the leading planters in- 

10 Ibid, Vol. II, pp. 177-179. 

11 Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va., Vol. II, pp. 165-175. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 115 

creased they gradually surrounded themselves 
with elegant homes and sumptuous furnishings. 
At the period of the Revolution there were 
dozens of magnificent homes scattered through- 
out Virginia. Shirley, Brandon, Rosewell, 
Monticello, Blenheim, Mount Airy, and many 
more testified to the refined taste and love of 
elegance of the aristocracy of this time. The 
most common material used in the construction 
of these mansions was brick, manufactured by 
the planter himself, upon his own estate. The 
usual number of rooms was eight, although not 
infrequently there were as many as fourteen or 
sixteen. These apartments were very large, 
often being twenty-five feet square, and the 
pitch was invariably great. In close prox- 
imity to the mansion were always other 
houses, some of which contained bed rooms 
that could be used either by guests or by mem- 
bers of the family. Thus the main house was 
really but the center of a little group of build- 
ings, that constituted altogether a residence of 
great size. How spacious they were is shown 
by the number of guests that were at times 
housed in them, for at balls and on other fes- 
tive occasions it was not at all infrequent for 



1 16 THE ARISTOCRACY 

forty or fifty persons to remain for several 
days in the home of their host. At a ball given 
by Richard Lee, of Lee Hall, Westmoreland 
County, there were seventy guests, most of 
whom remained three days. 

Nomini Hall, the house of Robert Carter, is 
an excellent example of the residences of the 
wealthier planters during the middle of the 
18th century. The main building was of brick, 
which was covered over with a mortar of such 
perfect whiteness that at a little distance it ap- 
peared to be marble. Although it was far 
larger than the houses of the preceding century 
it was not of great size, being but seventy-six 
feet long and forty-four wide. The pitch of 
the rooms, however, was very great, that of the 
lower floor being seventeen feet and that of the 
second floor being twelve. No less than twen- 
ty-six large windows gave abundance of light 
to the various apartments, while at different 
points in the roof projected five stacks of chim- 
neys, two of these serving only as ornaments. 
On one side a beautiful jett extended for eigh- 
teen feet, supported by three tall pillars. On the 
first floor were the dining room, the children's 
dining room, Col. Carter's study, and a ball 



THE ARISTOCRACY 117 

room thirty feet long, while the second story 
contained four bed rooms, two of which were 
reserved for guests. At equal distances from 
each corner of the mansion were four other 
buildings of considerable size. One of these, a 
two story brick house of five rooms, was called 
the school and here slept Col. Carter's three 
sons, their tutor and the overseer. Correspond- 
ing to the school house at the other corners of 
the mansion were the stable, the coach house 
and the work house. The beauty of the lawn 
and the graceful sweep of a long terrace which 
ran in front of the mansion testified to the 
abundant care and taste expended in planning 
and laying out the grounds. East of the house 
was an avenue of splendid poplars leading to 
the county road, and the view of the buildings 
through these trees was most attractive and 
beautiful. One side of the lawn was laid out 
in rectangular walks paved with brick and 
covered over with burnt oyster shells, and be- 
ing perfectly level was used as a bowling green. 
In addition to the buildings already mentioned 
there were close to the mansion a wash house 
and a kitchen, both the same size as the school 



118 THE ARISTOCRACY 

house, a bake house, a dairy, a store house and 
several other small buildings. 12 

Some of the mansions of the 18th century 
were much larger and more beautiful than 
Nomini Hall. Rosewell, erected by the Page 
family, was of immense size, containing a 
large number of halls and chambers, but it was 
singularly devoid of architectural beauty and 
presented somewhat the appearance of a hotel. 
The Westover mansion was very large and 
could accommodate scores of guests. It was 
surrounded with so many buildings and out- 
houses that to visitors it seemed a veritable 
little city. 13 Chastellux, who was a guest of 
the Byrds in 1782, says that Westover sur- 
passed all other homes in Virginia in the mag- 
nificence of the buildings and the beauty of the 
situation. 14 

It was the interior of these mansions, how- 
ever, that gave them their chief claim to ele- 
gance. The stairways, the floors, the mantles 
were of the finest wood and were finished in 
the most costly manner. In the beautiful halls 

12 Fithian, Journal and Letters, pp. 127-131. 
"Voyages dans l'Amerique Septentrionale, Tome 
II, p. 128. 
14 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. VI, p. 347. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 1 19 

of Rosewell richly carved mahogony wainscot- 
ings and capitals abounded. 15 At Monticello 
the two main halls were given an air of rich- 
ness and beauty by the curiously designed man- 
tles, the hard wood floors and the stately win- 
dows and doors. John Bernard, who thought 
the Virginia mansions lacking in architectural 
beauty, stated that internally they were palaces. 

The furniture was in keeping with its sur- 
roundings. It was frequently of hard wood, 
beautifully decorated with hand work. All 
the furniture, except that of the plainest de- 
sign, was imported from England, and could 
be bought by the planters at a price very little 
above that paid in London. Costly chairs, 
tables, book-cases, bedsteads, etc., were found 
in the homes of all well-to-do men. 

The Virginians seem to have had at this 
period a passion for silver ware, and in their 
homes were found a great variety of articles 
made of this metal. There were silver candle- 
sticks, silver snuffers, silver decanters, silver 
snuff-boxes, silver basins. The dining table on 
festive occasions groaned with the weight of sil- 
ver utensils, for goblets, pitchers, plates, spoons 

16 Meade, Vol. II, p. 331. 



120 THE ARISTOCRACY 

of silver were then brought forth to do honor 
to the guests. The punch might be served in 
silver bowls and dished out with silver ladles 
into silver cups; for the fruit might be silver 
plates, for the tea silver pots. The silver plate 
at Westover was mortgaged by William Byrd 
III to the value of £662. Among other articles 
we find that ten candle-sticks brought £70, one 
snuffer-stand £5, two large punch bowls £30, a 
punch strainer £1.10, and a punch ladle £1. 16 
Robert Carter, of Nomini Hall, was very fond 
of fine silver. In 1774 he invested about £30 in 
a pair of fashionable goblets, a pair of sauce- 
cups and a pair of decanter holders. 17 

In many homes were collections of pictures 
of great merit and value. In the spacious halls 
of the mansions were hung the portraits of 
ancestors that were regarded with reverential 
pride. The Westover collection was perhaps the 
most valuable in the colony, containing several 
dozen pictures, among them one by Titian, one 
by Rubens, and portraits of several lords of 
England. 18 Mount Airy, the beautiful home of 

16 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. IX, p. 82. 

17 Fithian, Journal and Letters, p. 251. 

18 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. VI, p. 350. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 121 

the Tayloe family, contained many paintings, 
which were well executed and set in elegant 
frames. 19 Although most of the pictures in the 
homes of the aristocracy were imported from 
England, some were painted in Virginia, for at 
times artists of talent came to the colony. In 
1735 a man named Bridges painted William 
Byrd's children. It is thought also that it was 
he that painted the portrait of Governor Spots- 
wood and possibly several pictures of the Page 
family. 20 

The use of coaches during the 17th century 
was not common. The universal highways of 
that period were the rivers. Every planter 
owned boats and used them in visiting, in at- 
tending church and in travelling through the 
colony. As the plantations for many years did 
not extend far back from the rivers' banks, 
there was no need of roads or vehicles. And 
even when many settlements had been made be- 
yond tidewater, the condition of the roads was 
so bad that the use of vehicles was often im- 
practicable and riding was the common method 
of travelling. As the colony became more 

15 Fithian, Journal and Letters, p. 148. 

20 Wm. & Mary Quar., Vol. I, p. 123; Vol. II, p. 121. 



122 THE ARISTOCRACY 

thickly populated and the roads were gradu- 
ally improved, various kinds of carriages were 
introduced. During Governor Spotswood's ad- 
ministration most families of any note owned 
a coach, chariot, berlin or chaise. 21 By the 
middle of the 18th century their use was gen- 
eral throughout the entire colony. 

The coaches in use at the time of the Revolu- 
tion were elegant and very costly. A bill for a 
post chaise which has come down from the 
year 1784 gives the following description of 
that vehicle. The chaise was to be very hand- 
some, the body to be carved and run with raised 
beads and scrolls, the roof and upper panels to 
have plated mouldings and head plates; on the 
door panels were to be painted Prince of Wales 
ruffs with arms and crests in large handsome 
mantlings ; the body was to be highly varnished, 
the inside lined with superfine light colored 
cloth and trimmed with raised Casoy laces ; the 
sides stuffed and quilted ; the best polished plate 
glasses; mahogany shutters were to be used, 
with plated frames and plated handles to the 
door; there were to be double folding inside 

21 Jones' Virginia. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 123 

steps, a wainscoted trunk under the seat and a 
carpet. 22 

Every gentleman of means at this time 
owned a chariot drawn by four horses. Fre- 
quently six horses were used. 23 These animals 
were of the finest breed and were selected for 
their size and beauty from the crowded stables 
of the planters. The vehicles were attended by 
liveried negroes, powdered and dignified. Mrs. 
Carter, of Nomini Hall, had three waiting men 
for her coach ; a driver, a coachman and a pos- 
tillion. 24 

In the matter of dress there seems, from the 
earliest days, to have been a love of show and 
elegance. Inventories of the first half of the 
17th century mention frequently wearing ap- 
parel that is surprisingly rich. Thus Thomas 
Warnet, who died in 1629, possessed a pair of 
silk stockings, a pair of red slippers, a sea-green 
scarf edged with gold lace, a felt hat, a black 
beaver, a doublet of black camlet and a gold belt 
and sword. 25 At times these early immigrants 
wore highly colored waistcoats, plush or broad 

22 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog. Vol. VIII, p. 334. 

23 Fithian, Journals and Letters, p. 58. 
34 Ibid, p. 75. 

25 Bruce, Soc. Life in Va., p. 164. 



124 THE ARISTOCRACY 

cloth trousers, camlet coats with lace ruffles, 
the rough surroundings of the new colony. 
This gaudy apparel must have seemed odd amid 
Not all the wealthy planters, however, in- 
dulged in the weakness of costly dress. Many 
of the richest men of the 17th century, obedient 
to the spirit of frugality which so often marks 
the merchant, dressed plainly. 

At the time of the Revolution the use of 
costly apparel had become general. The usual 
costume of both men and women at festivals or 
balls was handsome and stately. Joseph Lane, 
while visiting at Nomini Hall, was dressed in 
black superfine broadcloth, laced ruffles, black 
silk stockings and gold laced hat. 26 Probably 
few even of the wealthiest aristocrats could ap- 
proach in matters of dress Lord Fairfax. The 
inventory of this gentleman's estate shows an 
astonishing variety of gaudy clothes. He pos- 
sessed a suit of brown colored silk, a suit of 
velvet, a suit of blue cloth, a suit of drab cloth, 
a green damask laced waistcoat, a scarlet laced 
waistcoat, a pink damask laced waiscoat, a gold 
tissue waistcoat, a brown laced coat, a green silk 

20 Fithian, Journal and Letters, p. 113. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 125 

waistcoat, a pair of black velvet breeches, and 
a pair of scarlet plush breeches. 27 

As might be expected, reading- and study- 
were not common among the early settlers. 
The rough life in the woods of the New World, 
the struggle to drive back the Indians and to 
build up civilization left no time for mental cul- 
ture. During the first half of the 17th century- 
books are mentioned very rarely in the records. 
As time passed, however, the planters began to 
build up libraries of considerable size in their 
homes. The lack of educational facilities and 
the isolation of the plantations made it neces- 
sary for each gentleman to trust to his own col- 
lection of books if he desired to broaden and 
cultivate his mind. Moreover, the use of over- 
seers which became general in the 18th century 
left to him leisure for reading. Many of the 
libraries in the mansions of the aristocracy were 
surprisingly large and well selected. Some of 
Col. Richard Lee's books were, Wing's Art of 
Surveying, Scholastical History, Greek Gram- 
mar, Caesaris Comentarii, Praxis Medicinae, 
Hesoid, Tulley's Orations, Virgil, Ovid, 

27 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog. Vol. VIII. 



126 THE ARISTOCRACY 

Livius, Diogenes, Sallust, History of the 
World, Warrs of Italy, etc. 28 In the library of 
Ralph Wormeley were found Glaber's Kim- 
istry, The State of the United Provinces, The 
Colledges of Oxford, Kings of England, The 
Laws of Virginia, The Present State of Eng- 
land, Ecclesastical History in Latin, Lattin 
Bible, Skill in Music, A Description of the Per- 
sian Monarchy, Plutoch's Lives, etc. 29 Many 
of these volumes were great folios bound in the 
most expensive way and extensively illustrated. 
The planters even in the 17th century were 
not insensible to the refining and elevating in- 
fluence of music. Inventories and wills show 
that many homes contained virginals, hand 
lyres, violins, flutes and haut boys. The cornet 
also was in use. 30 In the 18th century the 
study of music became general throughout the 
colony and even the classical compositions were 
performed often with some degree of skill. 
Despite the difficulty of securing teachers, 
music became a customary part of the educa- 
tion of ladies. Many of the planters themselves 

28 Wm. & Mary Quar. Vol. II, p. 247, 248. 
20 Wm. & Mary Quar. Vol. II, p. 172. 
80 Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va. Vol. II, p. 175; Soc. 
Life of Va. p. 164. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 127 

in their leisure moments indulged in this de- 
lightful amusement. Robert Carter had in his 
home in Westmoreland County a harpsichord, 
a piano-forte, an harmonica, a guitar and a 
flute, and at Williamsburg an organ. He had 
a good ear, a very delicate touch, was inde- 
fatigable in practicing and performed well on 
several instruments. Especially was he fond of 
the harmonica, and spent much time in practic- 
ing upon it. His skill is thus described by his 
tutor, "The music was charming! The notes 
are clear and soft, they swell and are inexpres- 
sibly grand ; and either it is because the sounds 
are new, and therefore please me, or it is the 
most captivating instrument I have ever heard. 
The sounds very much resemble the human 
voice, and in my opinion they far exceed even 
the swelling organ." 31 Thomas Jefferson, 
amid the cares of statesmanship and the study 
of philosophy, found time for music. He per- 
formed upon the violin and during the Revolu- 
tionary War, when the prisoners captured at 
Saratoga were encamped near his home, he took 
great delight in playing with a British officer, 
who could accompany him upon the guitar. 

S1 Bruce, Soc. Life of Va., pp. 181-185. 



128 THE ARISTOCRACY 

Dancing was indulged in by the Virginians 
from the earliest period. Even when the im- 
migrants lived in daily dread of the tomahawk 
of the Indians, and when their homes were but 
log huts in the midst of the forest, this form of 
amusement was not unknown. The music for 
dances was at times furnished by negroes, who 
had acquired skill upon the fiddle. There is evi- 
dence of the presence of dancing masters in the 
colony even during the 17th century. One of 
these was Charles Cheate. This man wandered 
through the colony for some time giving les- 
sons, but he was forced to flee from the coun- 
try after the suppression of Bacon's Rebellion, 
because of his attachment to the cause of the in- 
surgents. However, the sparseness of the 
population, the isolation of the plantations, the 
lack of roads made festive gatherings infre- 
quent during the first century of the colony's 
existence. The lack of towns made it neces- 
sary for dances to be held in private houses, 
and distances were so great that it was fre- 
quently impossible for many guests to assemble. 
Moreover, at this period the residences of the 
planter were too small either to allow 
room for dancing" or to accommodate the vis- 



THE ARISTOCRACY 129 

itors, who must necessarily spend the night 
after the close of the festivities. Not until the 
administration of Governor Spotswood were 
these difficulties somewhat overcome. Then it 
was, that the increasing wealth of the colony 
gave rise to a more brilliant social life among 
the aristocracy. Hugh Jones declared in 1722 
that at the Governor's house at balls and as- 
semblies were as good diversion, as splendid 
entertainment, as fine an appearance as he had 
ever seen in England. 32 

At the time of the Revolution dancing was so 
general that it had become a necessary part of 
the education of both gentlemen and ladies, and 
dancing schools were quite common. The mas- 
ters travelled from house to house and the 
pupils followed them, remaining as guests 
wherever the school was being held. A Mr. 
Christian conducted such a school in West- 
moreland County in 1773. Fithian thus de- 
scribes one of his classes held at Nomini Hall, 
"There were present of young misses about 
eleven, and seven young fellows, including my- 
self. After breakfast, we all retired into the 
dancing room, and after the scholars had their 

32 Jones' Va. 



130 THE ARISTOCRACY 

lessons singly round Mr. Christian, very po- 
litely, requested me to step a minuet .... There 
were several minuets danced with great ease 
and propriety; after which the whole company 
joined in country dances, and it was indeed 
beautiful to admiration to see such a number of 
young persons, set off by dress to the best ad- 
vantage, moving easily, to the sound of well 
performed music, and with perfect regularity 
.... The dance continued til two, we dined at 
half after three .... soon after dinner we re- 
paired to the dancing-room again; I observed 
in the course of the lessons, that Mr. Christian 
is punctual, and rigid in his discipline, so strict 
indeed that he struck two of the young misses 
for a fault in the course of their performance, 
even in the presence of the mother of one of 
them!" 33 

The balls of this period were surprisingly 
brilliant. The spacious halls of the mansions 
afforded ample room for a large company and 
frequently scores of guests would be present to 
take part in the stately minuet or the gay Vir- 
ginia reel. The visitors were expected to re- 
main often several days in the home of their 

33 Fithian, Journal and Letters, p. 63. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 131 

host resuming the dance at frequent intervals, 
and indulging in other forms of amusement. 
Fithian thus describes a ball given by Richard 
Lee, of Lee Hall, Westmoreland County. "We 
set away from Mr. Carter's at two; Mrs. Carter 
and the young ladies in the chariot, .... my- 
self on horseback. As soon as I had handed the 
ladies out, I was saluted by Parson Smith; I 
was introduced into a small room where a num- 
ber of gentlemen were playing cards. . . .to lay 
off my boots, riding-coat &c. Next I was di- 
rected into the dining-room to see young Mr. 
Lee; he introduced me to his father. With 
them I conversed til dinner, which came in at 
half after four. . . .The dinner was as elegant 
as could be well expected when so great an as- 
sembly were to be kept for so long a time. For 
drink there was several sorts of wine, good 
lemon punch, toddy, cyder, porter &c. About 
seven the ladies and gentlemen begun to dance 
in the ball room, first minuets one round ; sec- 
ond giggs; third reels; and last of all country 
dances ; tho' they struck several marches oc- 
casionally. The music was a French horn and 
two violins. The ladies were dressed gay, and 
splendid, and when dancing, their skirts and 



132 THE ARISTOCRACY 

brocades rustled and trailed behind them ! But 
all did not join in the dance for there were par- 
ties in rooms made up, some at cards; some 
drinking for pleasure ; . . . . some singing 'Lib- 
erty Songs' as they called them, in which six, 
eight, ten or more would put their heads near 
together and roar, .... At eleven Mrs. Carter 
call'd upon me to go." There were seventy 
guests at this ball, most of whom remained 
three days at Lee Hall. 34 

Side by side with growth in luxury, in re- 
finement and culture may be noted a marked 
change in the daily occupation of the wealthy 
planters. In the 17th century they were chiefly 
interested in building up large fortunes and had 
little time for other things. They were masters 
of the art of trading, and their close bargain- 
ing and careful attention to detail made them 
very successful. Practically all of the fortunes 
that were so numerous among the aristocracy in 
the 18th century were accumulated in the col- 
ony, and it was the business instinct and indus- 
try of the merchant settlers that made their ex- 
istence possible. The leading men in the colony 
in the last half of the 17th century toiled cease- 

84 Ibid., pp. 94-97. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 133 

lessly upon their plantations, attending to the 
minutest details of the countless enterprises that 
it was necessary for them to conduct. They 
were the nation builders of Virginia. It is true 
that they spent much of their energy upon po- 
litical matters, but this was to them but another 
way of increasing their fortunes. Altogether 
neither their inclinations, nor the conditions in 
which they lived, inclined them to devote much 
of their time to acquiring culture and refine- 
ment. 

But the descendants of these early planters 
enjoyed to the full the fruits of the energy and 
ability of their fathers. As time passed, there 
grew up in the colony the overseer system, 
which relieved the great property owners of 
the necessity of regulating in person all the af- 
fairs of their estates. Even before the end of 
the 17th century many men possessed planta- 
tions in various parts of the colony and it be- 
came then absolutely necessary to appoint cap- 
able men to conduct those that were remote 
from the home of the planter. At times the 
owner would retain immediate control of the 
home plantation, which often served as a cen- 
ter of industry for the remainder of the estate, 



134 THE ARISTOCRACY 

but even this in the 18th century was not in- 
frequently intrusted to the care of an overseer. 
These men were selected from the class of small 
farmers and many proved to be so capable and 
trustworthy that they took from their employ- 
ers' shoulders all care and responsibility. They 
were well paid when their management justi- 
fied it and cases were frequent where overseers 
remained for many years in the service of one 
man. 

This system gave to the planters far greater 
leisure than they had possessed in the earlier 
part of the colony's existence, and they made 
use of this leisure to cultivate their minds and 
to diversify their interests. It is only in this 
way that we can fully explain why the aristo- 
crat surrounded himself with a large library, in- 
dulged in the delicate art of music, beautified 
his home with handsome paintings, and revelled 
in the dance, in races or the fox hunt. This too 
explains why there grew up amid the planta- 
tions that series of political philosophers that 
proved so invaluable to the colonies in the hour 
of need. Jefferson, Henry, Madison, Marshall, 
Randolph, would never have been able to give 
birth to the thoughts that made them famous 



THE ARISTOCRACY 135 

had they been tied down to the old practical life 
of the planters of early days. The old instinct 
had been distinctly lacking in the philosophical 
spirit. As Hugh Jones says, the planters were 
not given to prying into the depths of things, 
but were "ripe" for the management of their 
affairs. With the greater leisure of the 18th 
century this spirit changed entirely, and we find 
an inclination among the aristocrats to go to 
the bottom of every matter that came to their 
attention. Thus John Randolph was not only 
a practical statesman and a great orator, he 
was a profound thinker ; although Thomas Jef- 
ferson was twice president of the United States, 
and was the author of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, it is as the originator of a political 
creed that he has the best claim to fame; John 
Marshall, amid the exacting duties of the Su- 
preme Court, found time for the study of phi- 
losophy. In men less noted was the same spirit. 
Thus Robert Carter of Nomini Hall in his love 
for music, did not content himself with acquir- 
ing the ability to perform on various instru- 
ments, but pried into the depths of the art, 
studying carefully the theory of thorough 



136 THE ARISTOCRACY 

bass. 35 He himself invented an appliance for 
tuning harpsichords. 36 This gentleman was 
also fond of the study of law, while he and his 
wife often read philosophy together. 37 Fithian 
speaks of him as a good scholar, even in clas- 
sical learning, and a remarkable one in English 
grammar. Frequently the gentlemen of this 
period spent much time in the study of such 
matters as astronomy, the ancient languages, 
rhetoric, history, etc. 

It is a matter of regret that this movement 
did not give birth to a great literature. Doubt- 
less it would have done so had the Virginia 
planters been students only. Practical politics 
still held their attention, however, and it is in 
the direction of governmental affairs that the 
new tendency found its vent. The writings of 
this period that are of most value are the letters 
and papers of the great political leaders — 
Washington, Jefferson, Madison and others. 
Of poets there were none, but in their place is 
a series of brilliant orators. Pendleton, Henry, 
and Randolph gave vent to the heroic senti- 

35 Fithian, Journal and Letters, pp. 59 and 83. 

8a Ibid., p. 77. 

37 Ibid., pp. 83 and 90. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 137 

ments of the age in sentences that burned with 
eloquence. 

The change that was taking place in the daily 
thoughts and occupations of the planters is 
strikingly illustrated by the lives of the three 
men that bore the name of William Byrd. 
Father, son and grandson are typical of the 
periods in which each lived. The first of the 
name was representative of the last quarter of 
the 17th century. He possessed to an extraor- 
dinary degree the instinct of the merchant, tak- 
ing quick advantage of any opportunity for 
trade that the colony afforded and building up 
by his foresight, energy and ability a fortune of 
great size. Not only did he carry on the culti- 
vation of tobacco with success, but he conducted 
with his neighbors a trade in a great variety of 
articles. In his stores were to be found duffels 
and cotton goods, window glass, lead and sol- 
der, pills, etc. At one time he ordered from 
Barbadoes 1,200 gallons of rum, 3,000 pounds 
of "muscovodo sugar," 200 pound of white 
sugar, three tons of molasses, one cask of lime- 
juice and two-hundredweight of ginger. A 
handsome profit often came to him through the 
importing and sale of white servants. In a 



138 THE ARISTOCRACY 

letter to England he writes, "If you could send 
me six, eight or ten servants by the first ship, 
and the procurement might not be too dear, 
they would much assist in purchasing some of 
the best crops they seldom being to be bought 
without servants." Byrd was also interested in 
the Indian trade. His plantation at Henrico 
was well located for this business and he often 
sent out traders for miles into the wilderness to 
secure from the savages the furs and hides that 
were so valued in England. He was provident 
even to stinginess and we find him sending his 
wig to England to be made over and his old 
sword to be exchanged for a new one. Al- 
though Byrd took a prominent part in the polit- 
ical life of the day, it is evident that in this as 
in other things he was predominated by the 
spirit of gain, for he took pains to secure two 
of the most lucrative public offices in the colony. 
For years he was auditor and receiver-general, 
receiving for both a large yearly income. 38 At 
his death his estate was very large, the land he 
owned being not less than 26,000 acres. 

William Byrd II was also typical of the pe- 
riod in which he lived. He was still the busi- 

38 Bassett, Writings of Wm. Byrd., Intro. XXV. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 139 

ness man, but he lacked the talent for close 
bargaining and the attention to details that 
characterized his father. His business ventures 
were bold and well conceived, but they did not 
meet with a great measure of success. His iron 
mines were never very productive, while his 
Indian trade met with frequent and disastrous 
interruptions from hostile tribes upon the fron- 
tier. Nor did he confine his attention to busi- 
ness matters. He was intensely interested in 
every thing pertaining to the welfare of the 
colony. He was one of the commissioners that 
ran the dividing line between Virginia and 
North Carolina. His writings show a bright- 
ness and wit that mark him as the best author 
the colony possessed during the first half of the 
18th century. In his every act we see that he 
is more the Cavalier than his father, less the 
merchant. 

The third William Byrd was entirely lack- 
ing in business ability. His mismanagement 
and his vices kept him constantly in debt, and 
for a while it seemed probable that he would 
have to sell his beautiful home at Westover. At 
one time he owned as much as £5,561 to two 
English merchants, whose importunities so em- 



140 THE ARISTOCRACY 

barrassed him that he was forced to mortgage 
one hundred and fifty-nine slaves on two of 
his plantations, and even his silver plate. These 
financial troubles were brought on him partly 
because of his fondness for gambling. Anbury 
says of him, "Being infatuated with, play, his 
affairs, at his death, were in a deranged state. 
The widow whom he left with eight children, 
has, by prudent management, preserved out of 
the wreck of his princely fortune, a beautiful 
home, at a place called Westover, upon James 
River, some personal property, a few planta- 
tions, and a number of slaves." 39 Another of 
Byrd's favorite amusements was racing and he 
possessed many beautiful and swift horses. He 
died by his own hand in 1777. Despite his dis- 
sipation and his weakness, he was a man of 
many admirable qualities. In the affairs of the 
colony he was prominent for years, distin- 
guishing himself both in political life and as a 
soldier. He was a member of the Council and 
was one of the judges in the parsons' case of 
1763, in which he showed his love of justice by 
voting on the side of the clergy. In the French 
and Indian War, he commanded one of the two 

30 Anbury, Vol. II, p. 329. 



THE ARISTOCRACY 141 

regiments raised to protect the frontier from 
the savage inroads of the enemy, acquitting 
himself with much credit. He was a kind 
father, a cultured gentleman, and a gallant 
soldier; an excellent example of the Cavalier of 
the period preceding the Revolution, whose 
noble tendencies were obscured by the excess 
to which he carried the vices that were then so 
common in Virginia. 

The story of the Byrd family is but the story 
of the Virginia aristocracy. A similar devel- 
opment is noted in nearly all of the distin- 
guished families of the colony, for none could 
escape the influences that were moulding them. 
The Carters, the Carys, the Boilings, the Lees, 
the Bookers, the Blands at the time of the Rev- 
olution were as unlike their ancestors of Nich- 
olson's day as was William Byrd III unlike his 
grandfather, the painstaking son of the Eng- 
lish goldsmith. 

Such were the effects upon the Virginia aris- 
tocracy of the economic, social and political 
conditions of the colony. There can be no 
doubt that the Virginia gentleman of the time 
of Washington and Jefferson, in his self-re- 
spect, his homage to womanhood, his sense of 



142 THE ARISTOCRACY 

honor, his power of command, in all that made 
him unique was but the product of the condi- 
tions which surrounded him. And although 
the elegance and refinement of his social life, 
the culture and depths of his mind can, to 
some extent, be ascribed to the survival of Eng- 
lish customs and the constant intercourse with 
the mother country, these too were profoundly- 
influenced by conditions in the colony. 



PART TWO 

The Middle Class 

T IKE the aristocracy the middle class in 
* — ' Virginia developed within the colony. It 
originated from free families of immigrants of 
humble means and origin, and from servants 
that had served their term of indenture, and its 
character was the result of climatic, economic, 
social and political conditions. There is no 
more interesting chapter in the history of Vir- 
ginia than the development of an intelligent and 
vigorous middle class out of the host of lowly 
immigrants that came to the colony in the 17th 
century. Splendid natural opportunities, the 
law of the survival of the fittest, and a govern- 
ment in which a representative legislature took 
an important part cooperated to elevate them. 
For many years after the founding of James- 
town the middle class was so small and was so 
lacking in intelligence that it could exercise but 
little influence in govenmental affairs, and the 

143 



144 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

governors and the large planters ruled the col- 
ony almost at will. During the last years of 
the 17th century it had grown in numbers, had 
acquired something of culture and had been 
drilled so effectively in political affairs that it 
could no longer be disregarded by governors 
and aristocracy. 

In the development of the middle class four 
distinct periods may be noted. First, the period 
of formation, from 1607 to 1660, when, from 
the free immigrants of humble means and from 
those who had entered the colony as servants 
and whose term of indenture had expired, was 
gradually emerging a class of small, independ- 
ent farmers. Second, a period of oppression, 
extending from 1660 to 1676. In these years, 
when William Berkeley was for the second time 
the chief executive of the colony, the poor peo- 
ple were so oppressed by the excessive burdens 
imposed upon them by the arbitrary old gov- 
ernor and his favorites that their progress was 
seriously retarded. Heavy taxes levied by the 
Assembly for encouraging manufactures, for 
building houses at Jamestown, for repairing 
forts, bore with great weight upon the small 
farmers and in many cases brought them to the 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 145 

verge of ruin. During this period the evil ef- 
fects of the Navigation Acts were felt most 
acutely in the colony, robbing the planters of 
the profit of their tobacco and causing suffering 
and discontent. This period ends with Bacon's 
Rebellion, when the down-trodden commons of 
the colony rushed to arms, striking out blindly 
against their oppressors, and bringing fire and 
sword to all parts of Virginia. The third pe- 
riod, from 1676 to 1700, was one of growth. 
The poor people still felt the effects of the un- 
just Navigation Acts, but they were no longer 
oppressed at will by their governors and the 
aristocracy. Led by discontented members of 
the wealthy planter class, they made a gallant 
and effective fight in the House of Burgesses 
for their rights, and showed that thenceforth 
they had to be reckoned a powerful force in the 
government of the colony. The representatives 
of the people kept a vigilant watch upon the ex- 
penditures, and blocked all efforts to impose un- 
just and oppressive taxes. During this last 
quarter of the 17th century the middle class 
grew rapidly in numbers and in prosperity. 
The fourth period, from 1700 to the Revolu- 
tion, is marked by a division in the middle class. 



146 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

At the beginning of the 18th century, there was 
no lower class corresponding with the vast 
peasantry of Europe. All whites, except the 
indentured servants and a mere handful of free- 
men whose indolence doomed them to poverty, 
lived in comparative comfort and ease. After 
the introduction of slaves, however, this state 
of affairs no longer existed and there grew up 
a class of poor whites, that eked out a wretched 
and degraded life. On the other hand planters 
of the middle class that had acquired some de- 
gree of prosperity benefited greatly by the in- 
troduction of slaves, for it lowered the cost of 
labor to such an extent that they were able to 
cultivate their fields more cheaply than before. 
At the time of the Revolutionary War the dis- 
tinction had become marked, and the prosperous 
middle class farmers were in no way allied to 
the degraded poor whites. 

During the first seventeen years of the col- 
ony's existence the character of immigration 
was different from that of succeeding periods. 
Virginia was at this time ruled by a private 
trading company. This corporation, which was 
composed largely of men of rank and ability, 
kept a strict watch upon the settlers, and ex- 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 147 

eluded many whom they thought would make 
undesirable colonists. 40 As a consequence, the 
class of people that came over before 1624 were 
more enlightened than the mass of the settlers 
during the remainder of the century. The Lon- 
don Company looked upon the whole matter as 
a business affair, and they knew that they could 
never expect returns from their enterprise if 
they filled their plantations with vagabonds and 
criminals. Those that were intrusted with the 
selection of settlers were given explicit instruc- 
tions to accept none but honest and industrious 
persons. When it was found that these pre- 
cautions were not entirely effective, still stricter 
measures were adopted. It was ordered by the 
Company in 1622 that before sailing for Vir- 
ginia each emigrant should give evidence of 
good character and should register his age, 
country, profession and kindred. 41 So solic- 
itous were they in regard to this matter that 
when, in 1619, James I ordered them to trans- 
port to Virginia a number of malefactors whose 
care was burdensome to the state, they showed 

40 Abstracts of Proceedings of Va. Company of 
London, Vol. II, p. 164. 

"Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 17 and 18; Bruce, Econ. Hist, 
of Va., Vol. I, p. 597. 



148 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

such a reluctance to obey that they incurred the 
king's displeasure. 42 

What tended strongly to attract a desirable 
class of men in the earliest years of the colony 
was the repeated attempt to establish manufac- 
tures. Until the charter of the London Com- 
pany was revoked, that body never ceased to 
send over numbers of skilled artisans and me- 
chanics. In 1619, one hundred and fifty work- 
men from Warwickshire and Stafford were 
employed to set up iron works on the James. 43 
Repeated attempts were made to foster the silk 
industry, and on more than one occasion men 
practiced in the culture of the silk worm came 
to Virginia. 44 An effort was made to start the 
manufacture of glass, 45 while pipe staves and 
clapboards were produced in considerable quan- 
tities. 46 Moreover, numerous tradesmen of all 
kinds were sent to the colony. Among the set- 

42 Abstracts of Proceedings of Va. Company of 
London, Vol. I, pp. 26 and 34; Bruce, Econ. Hist, of 
Va., Vol. I, pp. 599-600. 

43 Abstracts of Proceedings of Va. Company of 
London, Vol. I, pp. 162-164. 

44 Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va. Vol. I, p. 51. 

45 Abstracts of Proceedings of Va. Company of 
London, Vol. I, pp. 130 and 138. 

"Force, Vol. III. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 149 

tiers of this period were smiths, carpenters, 
bricklayers, turners, potters and husbandmen. 47 
With the year 1624 there came a change for 
the worse in the immigration, for the lack of 
the Company's paternal care over the infant 
colony was keenly felt after the king undertook 
personally the direction of affairs. James I 
and, after his death, Charles I were desirous 
that Virginia should undertake various forms 
of manufacture, and frequently gave directions 
to the governors to foster industrial pursuits 
among the settlers, for they considered it a mat- 
ter of reproach that the people should devote 
themselves almost exclusively to the cultivation 
of tobacco, but neither monarch was interested 
enough in the matter to send over mechanics 
and artisans as the Company had done, and we 
find after 1624 few men of that type among the 
newcomers. 48 The immigration that occurred 
under the London Company is, however, not of 
great importance, for the mortality among the 
colonists was so great that but a small percent- 
age of those that came over in the early years 

"Abstracts of Proceedings of Va. Company of 
London, Vol. I, p. 12. 
48 Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va., Vol. I, p. 286. 



150 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

survived the dangers that they were compelled 
to face. In 1622, after the memorable massacre 
of that year, there were but 1258 persons in the 
colony and during the next few years there was 
no increase in the population. 49 

The immigration to Virginia of free families 
of humble means began in the early years of the 
colony's existence, and continued throughout 
the 17th century. The lowness of wages and 
the unfavorable economic conditions that ex- 
isted in England induced many poor men to 
seek their fortunes in the New World. 50 The 
law which allotted to every settler fifty acres of 
land for each member of his family insured all 
that could pay for their transportation a planta- 
tion far larger than they could hope to secure 
at home. 51 Thus it was that many men of the 
laboring class or of the small tenant class, 
whose limited means barely sufficed to pay for 
their passage across the ocean, came to Virginia 
to secure farms of their own. The number 
of small grants in the first half of the 17th cen- 

*" Bruce, Soc. Life of Va., p. 17; Wm. & Mary 
Quar., Vol. IX, p. 61. 

60 Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va., Vol. I, pp. 576-584. 
81 Force, Vol. Ill, Orders and Constitutions, p. 22. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 151 

tury is quite large. Frequently patents were 
made out for tracts of land varying from fifty 
to five hundred acres in extent to immigrants 
that had entered the colony as freemen. 52 The 
law allowed them to include in the head-rights 
of their patents their wives, children, relatives, 
friends or servants that came with them, and 
some immigrants in this way secured planta- 
tions of considerable size. Thus in 1637 three 
hundred acres in Henrico County were granted 
to Joseph Royall, "due : 50 acres for his own 
personal adventure, 50 acres for the transporta- 
tion of his first wife Thomasin, 50 acres for the 
transportation of Ann, his now wife, 50 for 
the transportation of his brother Henry, and 
100 for the transportation of two persons, 
Robt. Warrell and Jon. Wells." 53 These peas- 
ant immigrants sometimes prospered in their 
new homes and increased the size of their plan- 
tations by the purchase of the head-rights of 
other men, and the cheapness of land in the 
colony made it possible for them to secure es- 
tates of considerable size. It is probable that 
the average holding of the small farmers of this 

52 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. VII, p. 191. 
03 Ibid., Vol. VIII, p. 75. 



152 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

period was between three and four hundred 
acres. 54 

Owing to the demand for servants and the 
cost of transporting them to the colony, it was 
seldom that any other than wealthy planters 
could afford to secure them. The wills of the 
first half of the 17th century show that few 
of the smaller planters even when they had at- 
tained a fair degree of prosperity made use of 
servant labor. Thus there was in Virginia at 
this period a class of men who owned their own 
land and tilled it entirely with their own hands. 
This condition of affairs continued until the in- 
flux of negroes, which began about the year 
1680, so diminished the cost of labor that none 
but the smallest proprietors were dependent en- 
tirely upon their own exertions for the cultiva- 
tion of their fields. 55 

These men, like the wealthy planters, raised 
tobacco for exportation, but they also planted 
enough corn for their own consumption. Their 
support was largely from cattle and hogs, which 
were usually allowed to wander at large, seek- 
ing sustenance in the woods or upon unpatented 

54 Ibid., Vol. VI, p. 251. 
66 Ibid., Vol. VI, p. 251. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 153 

land. The owners branded them in order to 
make identification possible. 56 Some of the 
small farmers owned but one cow and a few 
hogs, but others acquired numbers of the ani- 
mals. The testament of Edward Wilmoth, of 
Isle of Wight County, drawn in 1647, is typical 
of the wills of that period. "I give," he says, 
"unto my wife.... four milch cows, a steer, 
and a heifer that is on Lawns Creek side, and 
a young yearling bull. Also I give unto my 
daughter Frances a yearling heifer. Also I 
give unto my son John Wilmoth a cow calf, 
and to my son Robert Wilmoth a cow calf." 57 
The patent rolls, some of which have been 
preserved to the present day, show that the 
percentage of free immigrants to the colony was 
quite appreciable during the years immediately 
following the downfall of the London Com- 
pany. There are on record 501 patents that 
were issued between the dates 1628 and 1637, 
and in connection with them are mentioned, 
either as recipients of land or as persons trans- 
ported to the colony, 2,675 names. Of these 

56 Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va., Vol. I, pp. 378, 477 and 
480. 

67 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. VI, p. 251. 



154 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

336 are positively known to have come over as 
freemen, and most of them as heads of fam- 
ilies. There are 245 others who were probably 
freemen, although this has not yet been proved. 
The remainder are persons whose transporta- 
tion charges were paid by others, including in- 
dentured servants, negroes, wives, children, 
etc. Thus it is quite certain that of the names 
on this list over one fourth were those of free 
persons, who came as freemen to Virginia and 
established themselves as citizens of the col- 
ony. 58 Although the patent rolls that have 
been preserved are far from complete, there is 
no reason to suspect that they are not fairly 
representative of the whole, and we may assume 
that the percentage of free families that came to 
the colony in this period was by no means small. 
As, however, the annual number of immi- 
grants was as yet small and the mortality was 
very heavy, the total number of men living in 
Virginia in 1635 who had come over as free- 
men could not have been very large. The total 
population at that date was 5,000, and it is 
probable that at least 3,000 of these had come 
to the colony as servants. 

58 Ibid., Vol. VII, p. 441. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 155 

After 1635 the percentage of free settlers be- 
came much smaller. This was due largely to 
the fact that at this time the immigration of in- 
dentured servants to Virginia increased very 
much. Secretary Kemp, who was in office dur- 
ing Governor Harvey's administration, stated 
that of hundreds of people that were arriving 
nearly all were brought in as merchandise. 59 
So great was the influx of these servants, that 
the population tripled between 1635 and 1649. 
It is certain, however, that at no period during 
the 17th century did freemen cease coming to 
the colony. 

With the exception of the merchants and 
other well-to-do men that formed the basis of 
the aristocracy, the free immigrants were ig- 
norant and crude. But few of them could read 
and write, and many even of the most prosper- 
ous, being unable to sign their names to their 
wills, were compelled to make their mark to 
give legal force to their testaments. 60 Some of 
them acquired considerable property and be- 
came influential in their counties, but this was 
due rather to rough qualities of manhood that 

M Sainsbury Abstracts, year 1638, p. 8. 
"" Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. VI. 



156 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

fitted them for the life in the forests of the New- 
World, than to education or culture. 

The use of the indentured servant by the 
Virginia planters was but the result of the eco- 
nomic conditions of the colony. Even in the 
days of the London Company the settlers had 
turned their attention to the raising of tobacco, 
for they found that the plant needed but little 
care, that it was admirably suited to the soil, 
and that it brought a handsome return. Nat- 
urally it soon became the staple product of the 
colony. The most active efforts of the Com- 
pany and all the commands of King James and 
King Charles were not sufficient to turn men 
from its cultivation to less lucrative pursuits. 
Why should they devote themselves to manu- 
facture when they could, with far greater profit, 
exchange their tobacco crop for the manufac- 
tured goods of England? It was found that 
but two things were essential to the growth of 
the plant — abundance of land and labor. The 
first of these could be had almost for the ask- 
ing. Around the colony was a vast expanse of 
territory that needed only the woodman's axe 
to transform it into fertile fields, and the poor- 
est man could own a plantation that in England 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 157 

would have been esteemed a rich estate. Labor, 
on the other hand, was exceedingly scarce. The 
colony itself could furnish but a limited supply, 
for few were willing to work for hire when they 
could easily own farms of their own. The na- 
tive Americans of this region could not be made 
to toil in the fields for the white man, as the 
aborigines of Mexico and the West Indies were 
made to toil for the Spanish, for they were of 
too warlike and bold a spirit. Destruction would 
have been more grateful to them than slavery. 
Their haughtiness and pride were such that in 
their intercourse with the English they would 
not brook the idea of inferiority. No thought 
could be entertained of making them work in 
the fields. So the planters were forced to turn 
to the mother country. As early as 1620 they 
sent urgent requests for a supply of laborers, 
which they needed much more than artisans or 
tradesmen. The Company, although it did not 
relinquish its plan of establishing manufac- 
tures, was obliged to yield somewhat to this de- 
mand, and sent to the planters a number of in- 
dentured servants. 61 Thus early began that 

61 Abstracts of Proceedings of Va. Company of 
London, Vol. I, p. 92. 



158 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

great stream of laborers, flowing from Eng- 
land to Virginia, that kept up without interrup- 
tion for more than a century. 

From the first the indenture system was in 
vogue. Circumstances made this necessary, for 
had no obligations been put upon the immi- 
grants to work for a certain number of years in 
servitude, they would have secured tracts of 
ground for themselves and set themselves up 
as independent planters, as soon as they arrived 
in the country. It was found to be impossible 
to establish a class of free laborers. Also the 
system had its advantages for the immigrant. 
The voyage to the colony, so long and so ex- 
pensive, was the chief drawback to immigration. 
Thousands of poor Englishmen, who could 
hardly earn enough money at home to keep life 
in their bodies, would eagerly have gone to the 
New World, had they been able to pay for their 
passage. Under the indenture system this dif- 
ficulty was removed, for anyone could secure 
free transportation provided he were willing to 
sacrifice, for a few years, his personal freedom. 

And, despite the English love of liberty, 
great numbers availed themselves of this oppor- 
tunity. There came to Virginia, during the pe- 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 159 

riod from 1635 to 1680, annually from 1000 to 
1600 servants. The immigration in the earlier 
years seems to have been nearly if not fully as 
great as later in the century. During the year 
ending March 1636 sixteen hundred people 
came over, most of whom were undoubtedly 
servants. 62 In 1670 Governor Berkeley esti- 
mated the annual immigration of servants at 
1500. 63 But we need no better evidence that the 
stream at no time slackened during this period 
than the fact that the demand for them re- 
mained constant. So long as the planter could 
obtain no other labor for his tobacco fields, the 
great need of the colony was for more servants, 
and able-bodied laborers always brought a 
handsome price in the Virginia market. Col. 
William Byrd I testified that servants were the 
most profitable import to the colony. 64 The 
fact that the term of service was in most cases 
comparatively short made it necessary for the 
planter to repeople his estate at frequent inter- 
vals. The period of indenture was from four 
to seven years, except in the case of criminals 

62 Neill, Virginia Carolorum. 

83 Hening's Statutes, Vol. II. 

84 Virginia Hist. Register, Vol. I, p. 63. 



160 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

who sometimes served for life, and without this 
constant immigration the plantations would 
have been deserted. Thus in 1671, when tne 
population of the colony was 40,000, the num- 
ber of servants was but 6,000. 65 Nor was there 
any sign of slackening in the stream until the 
last years of the century, when there came a 
great increase in the importation of negro 
slaves. As soon as it became practicable to se- 
cure enough Africans to do the work of the 
servants, the need for the latter became less 
pressing. For many reasons the slave was more 
desirable. He could withstand better the heat 
of the summer sun in the fields, he was more 
tractable, he served for life and could not desert 
his master after a few years of service as could 
the servant. We find, then, that after 1680, the 
importation of servants decreased more and 
more, until, in the middle of the 18th century, 
it died out entirely. 

Thus it will be seen that the number of in- 
dentured servants that were brought to the col- 
ony of Virginia is very large. The most con- 
servative estimate will place the figure at 80,000, 

85 Neill, Virginia Carolorum; Hening's Statutes, 
Vol. II, p. 510. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 161 

and there is every reason to believe that this is 
much too low. Now, if we consider the growth 
of population in conjunction with these facts, it 
becomes evident that the indentured servant was 
the most important factor in the settlement of 
the colony. In 1671, according to the statement 
of Governor Berkeley, there were but 40,000 
people in the colony. 66 The immigration of 
servants had then been in progress for fifty 
years, and the number brought over must have 
exceeded the total population at that date. 
Even after making deductions for the mortality 
among the laborers in the tobacco fields, which 
in the first half of this century was enormous, 
we are forced to the conclusion that the per- 
centage of those that came as freemen was 
small. 

We have already seen that the larger part of 
the servants were men that came over to work 
in the tobacco fields. Great numbers of these 
were drawn from the rural districts of England, 
where the pitiful condition of thousands of la- 
borers made it easy to find recruits ready to 
leave for Virginia. So low were the wages 
given the farm hands at this period that their 

8S Hening's Statutes, Vol. II, p. 510. 



162 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

most excessive labor could hardly insure 
enough to support life, and, after years of hard 
work, they were often compelled to throw them- 
selves upon charity in their old age. The pit- 
tance that they received seldom made it pos- 
sible for them to secure food enough to sus- 
tain properly their arduous labors. Many 
worked for fourteen pence a day, and those that 
were most favored earned two shillings. The 
condition of the poorer class of workmen in the 
cities was, if possible, worse than that of the 
agricultural laborers, for economic conditions 
had combined with unwise laws to reduce them 
to the verge of starvation. Those that had not 
some recognized trade were compelled to labor 
incessantly for insufficient wages, and many 
were forced into beggary and crime. They 
were clothed in rags and their dwellings were 
both miserable and unsanitary. The number of 
those dependent upon charity for subsistence 
was enormous. In Sheffield, in 1615, a third of 
the entire population was compelled to rely in 
part on charity. No wonder these poor 
wretches were willing to sell their liberty to go 
to the New World! They had the assurance 
that whatever happened to them, their condi- 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 163 

tion could not be altered much for the worse. In 
Virginia there was a chance of improvement, 
at home they were doomed to live lives of 
drudgery and misery. 67 

But not all the indentured servants came 
from this class. Some were persons of culture, 
and, on rare occasions, of means. The word 
"servant" did not at that time have the menial 
signification that it has acquired in modern 
times, for it was applied to all that entered upon 
a legal agreement to remain in the employment 
of another for a prescribed time. 68 There are 
many instances of persons of gentle blood be- 
coming indentured servants to lawyers or phy- 
sicians, in order to acquire a knowledge of those 
professions. 69 All apprentices were called serv- 
ants. Tutors were sometimes brought over 
from England under terms of indenture to in- 
struct the children of wealthy planters in courses 
higher than those offered by the local schools. 
Several instances are recorded of gentlemen of 
large estates who are spoken of as servants, 
but such cases are very rare. 70 What was of 

67 Bruce. Econ. Hist, of Va., Vol. I, pp. 576-584. 

68 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 573. 
B0 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 574. 

10 Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va., Vol. I, p. 574. 



164 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

more common occurrence was the entering into 
indenture of persons who had become bankrupt. 
The severe English laws against debtors forced 
many to fly from the country to escape impris- 
onment, and there could be no surer way for 
them to evade their creditors than to place 
themselves under the protection of some planter 
as a servant and to sail for Virginia. How 
numerous was the debtor class in the colony is 
shown by an act of the Assembly in 1642, which 
exempted from prosecution persons that had 
fled from their creditors in England. The co- 
lonial legislators declared openly that the fail- 
ure to pass such a law would have hazarded the 
desertion of a large part of the country. 

At intervals large numbers of political pris- 
oners were sent to Virginia. During the civil 
wars in England, when the royal forces were 
meeting defeat, many of the king's soldiers were 
captured, and many of these were sold to the 
planters as servants. A large importation took 
place after the defeat of Charles II at Wor- 
cester. 71 From 1653 to 1655 hundreds of un- 
fortunate Irishmen suffered the consequence of 
their resistance to the government of Cromwell 

71 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 608. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 165 

by banishment to the plantations. 72 After 1660, 
when the tables had been turned, and the royal- 
ist party was once more in power, there set in a 
stream of Commonwealth soldiers and non- 
conformists. 73 These were responsible for a 
rising in the colony in 1663, that threatened to 
anticipate Bacon's Rebellion by thirteen years. 74 
The Scotch rebellion of 1678 was the occasion 
of another importation of soldiers. Finally, in 
1685, many of the wretches taken at the battle 
of Sedgemoor were sent to Virginia, finding re 
lief in the tobacco fields from the harshness of 
their captors. 75 

These immigrations of political prisoners are 
of great importance. They brought into Vir- 
ginia a class of men much superior to the ordi- 
nary laborer, for most of them were guilty only 
of having resisted the party in power, and many 
were patriots in the truest sense of the word, 
suffering for principles that they believed es- 
sential to the welfare of their country. 

We have already seen that under the London 
Company of Virginia few criminals were sent to 

"Ibid., Vol. I, p. 609. 

"Ibid., Vol. I, p. 610. 

74 Beverley, Hist, of Va., p. 57. 

70 Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va., Vol. I, p. 611. 



166 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

the colony. After the dissolution of that body- 
there was quite as great strictness in regard 
to the matter. As the Company had feared to 
fill the country with malefactors, knowing that 
it would ruin the enterprise in which they had 
expended so much time and money, so, in later 
years, the Virginia people were solicitous of the 
character of those that were to be their neigh- 
bors. They were firm in demanding that no 
"jailbirds" be sent them. On more than one oc- 
casion, when persons of ill repute arrived, they 
at once shipped them back to England. There 
existed, however, in the mother country a feel- 
ing that it was but proper to use Virginia as a 
dumping ground for criminals, and the magis- 
trates from time to time insisted on shipping ob- 
jectionable persons. But it is certain that the 
percentage of felons among the servants was 
not large. At one period only were they sent 
over in numbers great enough to make them- 
selves felt as a menace to the peace of the col- 
ony. After the Restoration, when England 
was just beginning to recover from the con- 
vulsions of the preceding twenty years and 
when the kingdom was swarming with vicious 
and criminal persons, a fresh attempt was made 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 167 

to seek an outlet for this class in Virginia. A 
sudden increase in lawlessness in the colony 
aroused the people to the danger, and in 1670 
the General Court prohibited the introduction of 
English malefactors into the colony. 76 Al- 
though in the 18th century criminals were sent 
to Virginia at times, their numbers were insig- 
nificant and their influence small. 

Having examined the various types of men 
that entered Virginia as indentured servants, 
it now remains to determine to what extent 
these types survived and became welded into the 
social life of the colony. The importation of 
starving laborers and even of criminals was of 
vital importance only in proportion to the fre- 
quency with which they survived their term of 
service, acquired property, married and left de- 
scendants. The law of the survival of the fit- 
test, which is so great a factor in elevating the 
human race, operated with telling effect in Vir- 
ginia. The bulk of the servants were subjected 
to a series of tests so severe, that, when safely 
passed through, they were a guarantee of 
soundness of body, mind, and character. 

The mortality among the laborers in the to- 

7e Hening's Statutes, Vol. II, p. 510. 



168 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

bacco fields was enormous. Scattered along the 
banks of the rivers and creeks and frequently- 
adjacent to swamps and bogs, the plantations 
were unhealthful in the extreme. Everywhere 
were swarms of mosquitoes, 77 and the colonists 
were exposed to the sting of these pests both by 
night and day, and many received through them 
the deadly malaria bacteria. Scarcely three 
months had elapsed from the first landing at 
Jamestown in 1607, when disease made its ap- 
pearance in the colony. The first death oc- 
curred in August, and so deadly were the con- 
ditions to which the settlers were subjected that 
soon hardly a day passed without one death to 
record. Before the end of September more than 
fifty were in their graves. Part of the mortality 
was due, it is true, to starvation, but "fevers and 
fluxes" were beyond doubt responsible for many 
of the deaths. 78 George Percy, one of the party, 
describes in vivid colors the sufferings of the 
settlers. "There were never Englishmen," he 
says, "left in a forreigne countrey in such mis- 
erie as wee were in this new discovered Vir- 
ginia, Wee watched every three nights, lying on 

77 Strachey's Historie of Travaile into Va., p. 63. 

78 Percy's Discourse, p. lxxii. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 169 

the bare ground, what weather soever came; 
.... which brought our men to be most feeble 
wretches,. . . .If there were any conscience in 
men, it would make their harts to bleed to hears 
the pitifull murmurings and outcries of our sick 
men without reliefe, every night and day for the 
space of six weekes : some departing out of the 
World, many times three or f oure in a night ; in 
the morning, their bodies trailed out of their 
cabines like dogges, to be buried." 79 Of the 
hundred colonists that had remained at James- 
town, but thirty-eight were alive when relief 
came in January, 1608. 

Nor were the colonists that followed in the 
wake of the Susan Constant, the Godspeed and 
the Discovery more fortunate. In the summer 
of 1609, the newcomers under Lord Delaware 
were attacked by fever and in a short while one 
hundred and fifty had died. It seemed for a 
while that no one would escape the epidemic and 
that disease would prove more effective than the 
Indians in protecting the country from the en- 
croachment of the Englishmen. 80 How ter- 
rible was the mortality in these early years is 

79 Narratives of Early Va., pp. 21 and 22. 

80 Ibid., p. 200. 



170 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

shown by the statement of Molina in 1613, that 
one hundred and fifty in every three hundred 
colonists died before being in Virginia twelve 
months. 81 

In 1623 a certain Nathaniel Butler, who 
had been at one time governor of the Bermuda 
Islands, testified to the unhealthfulness of the 
colony. "I found," he says, "the plantations 
generally seated upon meer salt marishes full of 
infectious boggs and muddy creeks and lakes, 
and thereby subjected to all those inconven- 
iences and diseases which are soe commonly 
found in the most unsounde and most un- 
healthy parts of England whereof everie coun- 
try and clymate hath some." Butler asserted 
that it was by no means uncommon to see new- 
comers from England "dying under hedges 
and in the woods." He ended by declaring 
that unless conditions were speedily redressed 
by some divine or supreme hand, instead of a 
plantation Virginia would shortly get the name 
of a slaughter house. 82 

The mortality was chiefly among the new- 

81 Ibid., p. 220. 

82 Abstracts of Proceedings of Va. Company of 
London, Vol. II, p. 171. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 171 

comers. If one managed to survive during his 
first year of residence in the colony, he might 
reasonably expect to escape with his life, being 
then "seasoned" as the settlers called it. The 
death rate during this first year, however, was 
frightful. De Vries said of the climate "that 
during the months of June, July and August it 
was very unhealthy, that then people that had 
lately arrived from England, die, during these 
months, like cats and dogs, whence they call it 
the sickly season." S3 So likely was it that a 
newcomer would be stricken down that a "sea- 
soned" servant was far more desirable than a 
fresh arrival. A new hand, having seven and a 
half years to serve, was worth not more than 
others, having one year more only. Governor 
William Berkeley stated in 1671, "there is not 
oft seasoned hands (as we term them) that die 
now, whereas heretofore not one of five escaped 
the first year." 84 

Robert Evelyn, in his Description of the 
Province of New Albion, printed in 1648, gives 
a vivid picture of the unhealthful climate of 
Virginia. He declared that formerly five out 

83 Neill, Va. Carolorum. 

84 Hening's Statutes, Vol. II. 



172 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

of every six men imported from Europe fell 
speedy victims to disease. "I," he said, "on 
my view of Virginia, disliked Virginia, most of 
it being seated scatteringly .... amongst salt- 
marshes and creeks, whence thrice worse than 
Essex, .... and Kent for agues and diseases 
.... brackish water to drink and use, and a 
flat country, and standing waters in woods bred 
a double corrupt air." 85 

Much of the ill health of the immigrants was 
undoubtedly due to the unwholesome conditions 
on board the ships during their passage from 
Europe. The vessels were often crowded with 
wretched men, women and children, and were 
foul beyond description. Gross uncleanliness 
was the rule rather than the exception. Wil- 
liam Copps, in a letter to Deputy Treasurer 
Ferrar, says, "Betwixt decks there can hardlie 
a man fetch his breath by reason there arisith 
such a funke in the night that it causes putri fa- 
cation of blood and breedeth disease much like 
the plague." Often the number of persons that 
died at sea was frightful. One vessel lost 
one hundred and thirty persons out of one 

85 Force, Historical Tracts, Vol. II, New Albion, 
p. 5. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 173 

hundred and eighty. The disease started in 
this way was often spread in Virginia after the 
settlers had reached their new homes, and ter- 
rible epidemics more than once resulted. 

If the assertion of Berkeley that four out of 
five of the indentured servants died during the 
first year's residence in the colony, or Evelyn's 
statement that five out of six soon succumbed, be 
accepted as correct, the number of deaths must 
have been very large indeed. Among the hun- 
dreds of servants that were brought to the col- 
ony each year a mortality of over eighty per 
cent would have amounted in a few years to 
thousands. Statements made in regard to early 
Virginia history are so frequently inaccurate, 
and the conditions here described are so hor- 
rible that one is inclined to reject this testimony 
as obviously exaggerated. However, a close 
examination of the number of persons that 
came to Virginia from 1607 to 1649, and of the 
population between those dates forces us to the 
conclusion that the statements of Berkeley and 
Evelyn were not grossly incorrect. When, 
however, Evelyn adds that "old Virginians af- 
firm, the sicknesse there the first thirty years to 
have killed 100,000 men," it is evident that this 



174 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

rumor was false. 86 Yet even this is valuable 
because it shows in an indefinite way that the 
mortality was very large. 

When we consider the fact that it was the 
lowest class of immigrants that were chiefly ex- 
posed to these perils it becomes evident how 
great a purifying force was exerted. The in- 
dentured servants more than any others had 
to face the hot sun of the fields, and upon them 
alone the climate worked with deadly effect. 

But disease was not the only danger that the 
indentured servant faced in those days. At 
times starvation carried off great numbers. 
Even after the colony had attained a certain de- 
gree of prosperity famines occurred that bore 
with fearful weight upon the servants. In 1636 
there was great scarcity of food and in that 
year 1,800 persons perished. A servant, in 
1623, complained in a letter to his parents that 
the food that was given him would barely sus- 
tain life, and that he had often eaten more at 
home in a day than was now allowed him for 
a week. 87 

But if the servant survived all these dangers, 

88 Ibid., p. 5. 

87 Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va., Vol. I, p. 7. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 175 

if he escaped disease, starvation and the toma- 
hawk, his task was not yet finished. He had 
then to build for himself a place in society. 
When the servant was discharged, upon the 
expiration of his term, he was always given 
some property with which to start life as a 
freeman. In the days of the Company, each 
was granted 100 acres of land, and, when this 
was seated, each was probably entitled to an 
additional tract of the same extent. After 1624 
the servant received, at the end of his term of 
indenture, no allotment of land, but was given 
instead enough grain to sustain him for one 
year. Also he was to receive two sets of ap- 
parel, and in Berkeley's time a gun worth 
twenty shillings. 88 The cheapness of land 
made it easy for these men to secure little farms, 
and if they were sober and industrious they had 
an opportunity to rise. They might acquire in 
time large estates; they might even become 
leaders in the colony, but the task was a hard 
one, and those that were successful were worthy 
of the social position they obtained. 

It is of importance to note that of the serv- 
ants that came to the colony but a small num- 

88 Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 41 and 42; Jones' Va. 



176 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

ber married and left descendants. Women 
were by no means plentiful. During the earlier 
years this had been a drawback to the advance- 
ment of the colony, for even the most pros- 
perous planters found it difficult to secure 
wives. It was this condition of affairs that in- 
duced the Company to send to Virginia that 
cargo of maids that has become so famous in 
colonial history. As years went on, the scarcity 
of women became a distinct blessing, for it 
made it impossible for the degraded laborer, 
even though he ultimately secured his freedom, 
to leave descendants to perpetuate his lowly in- 
stincts. Of the thousands of servants whose 
criminal instincts or lack of industry made it im- 
possible for them to become prosperous citizens, 
great numbers left the colony. Many went 
to North Carolina. As Virginia had served as 
a dumping ground for the refuse of the English 
population, so did this new colony furnish a 
vent for undesirable persons from Virginia. 
William Byrd II, who had an excellent oppor- 
tunity to observe conditions in North Carolina 
while running the dividing line, bears testimony 
to the character of the immigrants to that col- 
ony from Virginia and Maryland. "It is cer- 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 177 

tain," he says, "many slaves shelter themselves 
in this obscure part of the world, nor will any 
of their righteous neighbors discover them. 
Nor were the worthy borderers content to shel- 
ter runaway slaves, but debtors and criminals 
have often met with the like indulgence. But 
if the government of North Carolina has en- 
courag'd this unneighbourly policy in order to 
increase their people, it is no more than what 
ancient Rome did before them." 89 Again he 
says, "The men. . . .just like the Indians, im- 
pose all the work upon the poor women. They 
make their wives rise out of their beds early in 
the morning, at the same time that they lye and 
snore, til the sun has run one third of his course 
. . . .Then, after stretching and yarning for half 
an hour, they light their pipes, and, under the 
protection of a cloud of smoak, venture out into 
the open air; tho' if it happens to be never so 
little cold, they quickly return shivering into the 
chimney corner .... Thus they loiter away their 
lives, like Soloman's sluggard, with their arms 
across, and at the winding up of the year 
scarcely have bread to eat. To speak the truth, 
tis a thorough aversion to labor that makes 

88 Bassett, Writings of Wm. Byrd, p. 47. 



178 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

people file off to North Carolina, where plenty 
and a warm sun confirm them in their disposi- 
tion to laziness for their whole lives." 90 The 
gangs of outlaws that infested North Carolina 
during the early years of the 18th century and 
defied the authority of the governors, were com- 
posed largely of runaway servants from Vir- 
ginia. The laxness and weakness of the gov- 
ernment made it an inviting place for criminals, 
while the numerous swamps and bogs, and the 
vast expanse of dense woods offered them a 
safe retreat. 91 

Many freed servants took up in Virginia 
unpatented land, trusting that their residence 
upon it might give to them in time a legal title. 
Others settled upon tracts that had been de- 
serted. In some instances, where these people, 
or their descendants, had prospered and had 
built homes and barns and stables on the prop- 
erty, or had otherwise improved it, their claims 

90 Ibid., pp. 75 and 76. 

81 It is not to be supposed that these people are 
the ancestors of the eastern North Carolians of to- 
day. As they were cast off by society in Virginia, 
so were they crowded west by the influx of more 
industrious settlers in their new home and their de- 
scendants are at present to be found in the Blue 
Ridge and the Alleghanies. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 179 

to the land were confirmed by law. In other 
cases, when patents were made out to land al- 
ready occupied by "squatters," the lowly set- 
tlers were forced to leave their farms and to 
seek homes elsewhere, probably on unclaimed 
territory in remote parts of the colony. This 
gave rise to that fringe of rough humanity upon 
the frontier, that spread continually westward 
as the colony grew. Many of the servants that 
escaped from their masters fled to the moun- 
tains, seeking refuge among the defiles and 
woods of the Blue Ridge or the more distant 
Alleghanies. The descendants of these 
wretched people still exist in the mountains of 
Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Ken- 
tucky, exhibiting in their ignorance, their dis- 
regard for law, their laziness and even in their 
dialect the lowness of their origin. 

The facts presented in the preceding para- 
graphs lead us inevitably to the conclusion that 
that portion of the vast body of indentured 
servants that were brought to Virginia which 
made its lasting imprint on the character of the 
population of the eastern countries was com- 
posed of men of sterling qualities, and was 
rather an element of strength than of weakness 



180 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

to the middle class into which they went. That 
many did rise to places of trust and influence 
is well established. There are numerous in- 
stances of servants, who, after serving their 
term of indenture, became burgesses, justices, 
etc. Thus John Trussell, who came over in 
1622 as a servant, became a burgess in 1654. 92 
The Assembly of 1629 included in its members 
William Warlick, William Poppleton, Richard 
Townsend and Anthony Pagett, all of whom 
had come to the colony under terms of inden- 
ture. 93 Gatford, a puritanical preacher of the 
Commonwealth period, wrote that at that time 
some of the former servants were still filling of- 
fices of trust in the colony. The author of 
Virginia's Cure asserted, in 1662, that the bur- 
gesses "were usuall such as went over as serv- 
ants thither, and though by time, and industry, 
they may have obtained competent estates, yet 
by reason of their poor and mean condition, 
were unskilful in judging of a good estate, 
either of church or Commonwealth." 94 This, 

92 Neill, Va. Carolorum. 

s3 Neill, Va. Carolorum; Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va. 
Vol. II, p. 45. 

94 Neill, Va. Carolorum; Force, Historical Tracts, 
Vol. Ill; Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va., Vol. II, p. 45. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 181 

however, is undoubtedly an exaggeration. Yet, 
in 1651, Governor Berkeley, in an address to 
the Assembly, stated that hundreds of ex- 
amples testified to the fact that no man in the 
colony was denied the opportunity to acquire 
both honor and wealth. 

The chief occupation to which the freed 
servant turned was agriculture. During their 
term of indenture it was as field laborers that 
most of them had spent their time, and many 
were ignorant of any other means of earning a 
living. Moreover, farming was almost the only 
occupation open to them in the colony. Some, 
who had been trained upon the plantations as 
artisans, doubtless made use of their skill after 
becoming free to increase their incomes, but 
even these were forced to turn their attention 
chiefly to farming. With the payment that was 
made by the former master, and the land which 
it was so easy to obtain, the new freeman, if 
he were sober and industrious, was sure to 
wrest from the soil an abundant supply of food 
and perhaps enough tobacco to make him quite 
prosperous. He must first plant corn, for were 
he to give all his land to tobacco, he would 
starve before he received from it any returns. 



182 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

If things went well with him, he would buy 
hogs and cattle, and thereafter these would con- 
stitute his most valuable possession. 

Some of the servants upon the expiration of 
their terms of indenture secured work as over- 
seers, if they found it impossible to obtain pat- 
ents to estates of their own. Throughout the 
greater part of the colonial period the position 
occupied by the overseer was preferable to that 
of the poorest class of independent farmers. 
His usual remuneration was a part of the crop. 
Sometimes he received only one-tenth of what 
was produced, but often his share was much 
greater, for cases are on record where he was 
to keep one half. Later the pay was regulated 
by the number of persons under his manage- 
ment, slaves as well as hired and indentured 
servants forming the basis of the calculation. 
Under both systems of payment he was liberally 
rewarded for his services. 95 The control of 
many laborers, the necessity for a knowledge of 
all the details of farming, the contact with his 
employer in matters of business made requisite 
in the overseer both intelligence and the power 
of command. Many were men of much ability 

" Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va., Vol. II, p. 47. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 183 

i 

and were trusted by the planters with the en- 
tire management of their estates. When the 
overseer worked upon the "home" plantation, he 
usually dwelt either in the mansion itself or in 
one of the group of houses nearby, in which were 
sleeping rooms used by members of the house- 
hold or guests. He was treated always with 
courtesy and was accorded some social recogni- 
tion by his aristocratic employer. Sometimes 
the overseer through ability and care accumu- 
lated property and became an independent 
planter. 

Occasionally the servants upon the close of 
their term of indenture earned a subsistence as 
hired laborers. This, however, was not very 
common, for the opportunities for an independ- 
ent existence were so great that few would 
fail to grasp them. There could be no necessity 
for laboring for others when land could be had 
so cheaply. Those that did hire themselves out 
were tempted usually by the excessive wages 
that could be obtained from wealthy planters. 
Throughout the 17th century, the difficulty of 
obtaining a sufficient supply of servants to keep 
in cultivation the tobacco fields of the colony, 
created a lively demand for labor and made 



184 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

wages higher than in England. Even in the 
early years of the century this state of affairs 
prevailed, and we find planters complaining of 
the excessive cost of hired labor and making 
urgent requests for indentured servants." De- 
spite the high price of tobacco that prevailed 
before 1660, it was the general opinion that 
no profit could be made from it when hired la- 
borers were used in its cultivation, and it is 
probable that they were never employed except 
when the supply of servants fell far short of the 
demand. In the 18th century, when the im- 
portation of many thousands of slaves had low- 
ered the price of labor in the colony, the em- 
ployment of hired hands became still less 
frequent. 

The existence of high wages for so many 
years accelerated the formation of the middle 
class, for the hired laborer could, if he were 
economical, save enough to purchase land and 
to become an independent farmer. So crude 
were the agricultural methods then in use in the 
colony that very little capital was needed by 
the small planters, and tobacco and corn could 
be raised by them almost as economically as 

68 Ibid., p. 118. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 185 

upon the large plantations. Moreover, since 
men of the middle class could seldom afford to 
employ laborers to till their fields, they were in 
a sense brought into competition with the wage 
earner. The price of tobacco was dependent 
in large measure upon the cost of production, 
and could not, except upon exceptional occa- 
sions, fall so low that there could be no profit 
in bringing servants from England to cultivate 
it, and this fact reacted favorably upon those 
that tilled their fields with their own hands. 
On the other hand this very circumstance made 
it hard for the small farmer to enlarge the 
scope of his activities. Unless he had obtained 
a fair degree of prosperity, it would be impos- 
sible for him to purchase servants or hire labor- 
ers and the output of his plantation was limited 
to his own exertions, or those of the members 
of his family. 

By 1660, the middle class was fully formed. 
From the thousands of indentured servants 
that had been brought to the colony numerous 
families had emerged which, though rough and 
illiterate, proved valuable citizens and played 
an important role in the development of the 
country. Added to the free immigrants of 



186 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

humble means they formed a large body that 
needed only organization and leaders to wield 
a powerful influence in governmental affairs. 

In the second period, from 1660 to 1676, the 
prosperity of the middle class was seriously im- 
paired by oppression by England and misgov- 
ernment and tyranny in the colony. The Nav- 
igation Acts, which were designed by the Eng- 
lish to build up their commerce, regardless of 
the consequences to their colonies, injured Vir- 
ginians of all classes, but bore with telling 
weight upon the poor independent planters. 
Moreover, the arbitrary rule of Governor Wil- 
liam Berkeley, the corruption of the Assembly, 
the heavy and unjust taxes and the frequent 
embezzlement of public funds conspired to re- 
tard the advancement of the middle class and 
to impoverish its members. 

The beginning of England's oppressive pol- 
icy towards the commerce of her colonies must 
date from 1651, when Parliament passed a 
stringent Navigation Act, forbidding the im- 
portation of any commodities into England or 
its territories except in English vessels or ves- 
sels of the nation that produced the goods. 97 

07 Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va. Vol. I, p. 349. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 187 

This law was aimed chiefly at the Dutch car- 
rying trade, which was so extensive that it had 
aroused England's jealousy, but it came as a 
serious blow to Virginia. A large part of her 
exports had for many years been transported 
by the Dutch, and the entire exclusion of the 
"Hollanders" could not fail to react unfavor- 
ably upon her prosperity. The immediate ef- 
fect, since it relieved the English ship owners 
of much of the competition with which they 
had contended, was to raise the cost of trans- 
portation. 

The Virginians protested strongly. In a 
speech to the Assembly, Governor Berkeley, 
fairly foaming with rage, denounced the act. 
"We," he said, "the Governor, Councell and 
Burgesses of Virginia, have seene a printed 
paper .... wherein (with other plantations of 
America) we are prohibited trade and com- 
merce with all but such as the present power 
shall allow of : .... we think we can easily find 
out the cause of this the excluding us the so- 
ciety of nations, which bring us necessaries for 
what our country produces : And that is the 
averice of a few interested persons, who en- 



188 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

deavour to rob us of all we sweat and labor 
for." 98 

But the evil was to some extent avoided dur- 
ing the Commonwealth period, owing to con- 
stant evasions of the law. There is abundant 
evidence to show that the Dutch trade, although 
hampered, was by no means stamped out, and 
Dutch vessels continued to carry the Virginia 
tobacco just as they had done during the reign 
of Charles I. In the year 1657, there was a 
determined effort to enforce the law, and the 
advance in the charges of transporting the 
crop of that year, indicates that this effort was 
partly successful. The freight rate rose from 
£4 a ton to £8 or £9, and in some cases to 
£14." 

A more serious blow came in 1660. A bill 
was passed prescribing that no goods of any 
description should be imported into or exported 
from any of the king's territories "in Asia, 
Africa, or America, in any other than English, 
Irish, or plantation built ships." 1 It was also 
required that at least three-fourths of the mar- 

08 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. I, p. 75. 

99 Wm. & Mary Quar. 

1 Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va., Vol. I, p. 356. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 189 

iners of these ships should be Englishmen. 
Moreover, another feature was added to the 
law which was far more oppressive than the 
first provision. It was enacted that "no sugar, 
tobacco, cotton, wool, indigo, ginger, justic, 
and other dying woods, of the growth or man- 
ufacture of our Asian, African, or American 
colonies, shall be shipped from the said colonies 
to any place but to England, Ireland, or to some 
other of his Majesty's plantations." 

The results of this law were ruinous to Vir- 
ginia. At one blow it cut off her trade with all 
countries but England and her colonies, and 
raised enormously the cost of transportation. 
Although England was the largest purchaser 
of tobacco, Holland and other countries had 
taken a large part of the crop each year. The 
colonists were now forced to bring all their 
crop to England, and an immediate glut in the 
market followed. The English could neither 
consume the enormously increased supply of 
tobacco, nor rid themselves of it by exportation 
to continental countries, and it piled up use- 
lessly in the warehouses. An alarming decline 
in the price followed, which reacted on the 
planters to such an extent that it brought many 



190 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

to the verge of ruin. The profit from tobacco 
was almost entirely wiped out. 

The effects of this law are clearly shown in 
a paper by a London merchant named John 
Bland, which was presented to the authorities 
in England, protesting against the injustice 
done to the colonies. "If," he says, "the Hol- 
landers must not trade to Virginia how shall 
the planters dispose of their tobacco ? the Eng- 
lish will not buy it, for what the Hollander car- 
ried thence was a sort of tobacco, not desired 
by any other people, nor used by us in England 
but merely to transport for Holland. Will it 
not then perish on the planters' hands ? . . . . the 
tobacco will not vend in England, the Holland- 
ers will not fetch it from England ; what must 
become thereof? even flung to the dunghil." 2 

The people of Virginia were reduced almost 
to despair. They made desperate efforts to 
raise the price of their staple product. Com- 
munications were entered into with Maryland 
and North Carolina to restrict the planting of 
tobacco in order to relieve the overproduction, 
but negotiations failed, giving rise to much bit- 

*Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. I, p. 141. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 191 

terness and contention. 3 Similar proposals 
were made by Virginia from time to time, but 
the effort was never successful. In 1664, the 
whole tobacco crop of Virginia was worth less 
than £8. 15s for each person in the colony. In 
1666 a large portion of the crop could not be 
sold at any price and was left on the hands of 
the planters. 4 

Moreover, the strict enforcement of the law 
placing all carrying trade in the hands of Eng- 
lishmen created a monopoly for the English 
ship owners, and raised enormously not only 
the freight rates, but the cost of all imported 
goods. The planter, while he found his income 
greatly decreased by the low price of tobacco, 
was forced to pay more for all manufactured 
goods. The cost of clothing rose until the col- 
ony was almost in nakedness. 

At this crisis an attempt was made to turn 
the energies of the people to manufacture. The 
Assembly offered rewards for the best pieces 
of linen and woolen cloth spun in the colony, 5 
and put a bounty on the manufacture of silk. 

* Sainsbury Abstracts, for 1662, pp. 17 and 19; 
Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va., Vol. I, pp. 389-390-391-392. 
*Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va., Vol. I, p. 393. 
6 Hening's Statutes, Vol. II, p. 238. 



192 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

A law was passed requiring each county to 
erect tan-houses, while encouragement was 
given to a salt works on the Eastern Shore. 
Bounties were also offered for ship-building. 
In 1666 a bill was passed making it compul- 
sory for the counties to enter upon the man- 
ufacture of cloth. The reading of this act 
shows that the Assembly understood fully the 
causes of the distress of the people. It begins : 
"Whereas the present obstruction of trade and 
the nakedness of the country doe suffitiently 
evidence the necessity of providing supply of 
our wants by improving all means of raysing 
and promoteing manuffactures amonge our- 
selves .... Be it enacted by the authority of this 
grand assembly that within two yeares at fur- 
thest after the date of this act, the commission- 
ers of each county court shall provide and sett 
up a loome and weaver in each of the respective 
counties." 6 

The corruption and mismanagement that 
attended these measures made them unsuccess- 
ful, and as time went on the planters became 
more and more impoverished. The Virginians 
chafed bitterly under the harsh enforcement of 

8 Ibid. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 193 

the law of 1660. Governor Berkeley when 
asked by the Lords Commissioners of Trade 
and Plantations in 1671 what obstructions 
there were to the improvement of trade and 
commerce in Virginia, answered with his ac- 
customed vigor, "Mighty and destructive, by 
that severe act of Parliament which excludes 
us the having any commerce with any other na- 
tion in Europe but our own .... If this were 
for his majesty's service, or the good of his 
subjects, we should not repine, whatever our 
sufferings are for it; but on my soul, it is the 
contrary of both." 7 

Berkeley had gone to England in 1661, and 
while there exerted his influence for the repeal 
of the act, but had been able to accomplish 
nothing. The desire of the English to crush 
the Dutch trade was so strong that they could 
not be induced to consider at all the welfare of 
the colonies. The powerful and logical appeal 
of Bland also was unheeded. This remarkable 
man, who seems to have understood fully the 
operation of economic laws that were only 
established as truths many years later, ex- 
plained clearly the harmful consequences of the 

T Ibid., Vol. II, p. 509. 



194 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

act and demanded that justice be done the col- 
onists. "Then let me," he says, "on behalf 
of the said colonies of Virginia and Maryland 
make the following proposals which I hope 
will appear but equitable : 

"First, that the traders to Virginia and 
Maryland from England shall furnish and 
supply the planters and inhabitants of those 
colonies with all sorts of commodities and 
necessaries which they may want or desire, 
at as cheap rates and prices as the Hollanders 
used to have when the Hollander was admitted 
to trade thither. 

"Secondly, that the said traders out of Eng- 
land to those colonies shall not only buy of the 
planter such tobacco in the colonies as is fit 
for England, but take off all that shall be yearly 
made by them, at as good rates and prices as 
the Hollanders used to give for the same .... 

"Thirdly, that if any of the inhabitants or 
planters of the said colonies shall desire to ship 
his tobacco or goods for England, that the trad- 
ers from England to Virginia and Maryland 
shall let them have freight in their ships at as low 
and cheap rates, as they used to have when the 
Hollanders and other nations traded thither." 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 195 

Bland, of course, did not expect these sug- 
gestions to be followed, but he did hope that 
the evils that he so clearly pointed out would 
be done away with by the repeal of the act. 
So far from heeding him, however, Parliament 
passed another bill, in 1673, taking away the 
last vestige of freedom of trade. The colo- 
nists, when the Navigation Acts began to be 
strictly enforced, in seeking an outlet for their 
commodities turned to each other, and a con- 
siderable traffic had sprung up between them. 
The New Englanders, tempted by the high 
price of manufactured goods in the south, were 
competing with Englishmen for the market of 
the tobacco raising colonies. The British mer- 
chants brought pressure to bear on Parliament, 
and a law was passed subjecting all goods that 
entered into competition with English commod- 
ities to a duty equivalent to that imposed on 
their consumption in England. This act crip- 
pled the new trade and deprived Virginia of 
even this slight amelioration of her pitiful con- 
dition. 

The decline in the price of tobacco and the 
increased cost of manufactured goods bore 
with telling effect on the small farmers. It was 



196 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

customary for them to sow the greater part of 
their fields with tobacco, and the enormous de- 
cline in the price of that plant brought many 
to the verge of ruin. Whenever the overpro- 
duction was so great that the English traders 
left part of the crop in Virginia, it was the 
planter of the middle class that was apt to suf- 
fer most, for the merchants could not afford 
to affront the wealthy and influential men of 
the colony, by refusing to transport their crops. 
Had it not been for the ease with which the 
common people could obtain support from In- 
dian corn and from their hogs and cattle, many 
might have perished during these years. 

But, in addition to the causes of distress that 
were brought about by the unjust policy of 
England, there were forces at work within the 
colony, that were scarcely less potent for harm. 
Chief among these was the attempt of Governor 
William Berkeley to make his government in- 
dependent of the people. Berkeley had, during 
the reign of Charles I, made a good governor, 
and had won the respect of the people, but as 
he became old there was a decided change for 
the worse in his nature. He is depicted in his 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 197 

declining years, as arbitrary, crabbed and 
avaricious. 

He had for the populace the greatest con- 
tempt. To him they seemed a mere rabble, 
whose sole function in life was to toil and 
whose chief duty was to obey strictly the man- 
dates of their rulers. He discouraged educa- 
tion because it bred a spirit of disobedience. 
"I thank God," he wrote, "there are no free 
schools and printing (in Virginia) and I hope 
we shall not have these hundred years; for 
learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, 
and sects into the world, and printing has di- 
vulged them, and libels against the best govern- 
ments." 8 That the common people should 
have a share in the government seemed to him, 
even more than it had seemed to Charles I, a 
thing absurd and preposterous. After the Res- 
toration, therefore, he resolved to free himself 
as far as practicable from all restraint, and to 
assume an arbitrary and almost absolute power. 

Berkeley was far better qualified for this 
task than had been his royal masters the 
Stuarts. He possessed remarkable vigor and 
determination, and despite his quick temper was 

* Hening's Statutes, Vol. II. 



198 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

not lacking in tact and diplomacy. With a 
discrimination and care that marked him as a 
master in the art of corruption, he tried to 
make the Assembly dependent upon himself, by 
bribing the members of both houses. Selecting 
men that he though he could most easily man- 
age, he gave to them places of honor and 
emolument in the colony, some being made col- 
lectors, some sheriffs, some justices. 9 The 
House of Burgesses was entirely corrupted, and 
so far from seeking to defend the rights of the 
people they represented, they proved willing 
instruments to the governor in his attempt to 
establish absolute power. 10 Nor could the col- 
ony correct this evil by returning to the As- 
sembly new burgesses, for Berkeley would not 
permit an election, and having once won over 
the House, continued to prorogue it from year 
to year. 11 For nine years before Bacon's Re- 

9 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. I, p. 59; Vol. 
Ill, p. 134. 

10 The commons of Charles City county said: "Sir 
William Berkeley, mindeing and aspiring to a sole 
and absolute power and command over us.... did 
take upon him the sole nameing and appointing of 
other persons, such as himself best liked and thought 
fittest for his purposes." 

11 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. Ill, p. 141. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 199 

bellion there had been no election of burgesses. 
"In this way," complained the commons of 
Charles City county, "Berkeley hath soe forti- 
fyed his power over us, as himselfe without 
respect to our laws, to doe what soever he best 
pleased." 12 

His power over the Council became even 
more marked. The men composing this im- 
portant body looked to the governors for ap- 
pointment to lucrative offices and endeavored 
usually to keep their favor. 13 Berkeley, more 
than any other governor, made use of this 
power over the Council to make its members 
submissive to his will. When vacancies oc- 
curred he took pains to appoint none whom he 
thought would be at all refractory. 14 More- 
over, "he very often discountenanced and 
placed his frowns on such as he observed in the 
least to thrust or cross his humor, soe that if 
by chance he had at any time choice of a person 
of honor, or conscience, that durst like a noble 
patriot speake his mind freely. . . .such person 
by some means or other was soone made 

12 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. Ill, p. 136. 

13 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 60. 
"Ibid., Vol. Ill, p. 134. 



200 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

weary of coming to councelle, and others over- 
awed from the like boldness." 15 In making his 
selections for high offices, Berkeley had re- 
course at times to men that had recently settled 
in the colony, hoping, doubtless, to secure per- 
sons submissive to- his will. "It has been the 
common practice," it was stated, "to putt per- 
sons that are mere strangers into places of 
great honor, profitt and trust who unduly offi- 
ciating therein, do abuse and wrong the people." 
These men proved parasites upon the colony 
and many enriched themselves at the public 
expense. Bacon, in his proclamation, called 
attention to this evil. "Wee appeale," he said, 
"to the country itselfe what and of what nature 
their oppressions have bin or by what caball 
and mistery the designs of those whom we call 
great men in authority and favour to whose 
hands the dispensation of the countries wealth 
has been committed ; let us observe the sudden 
rise of their estates compared with the quality 
in which they first entered this country, or the 
reputation they have held here amongst wise 
and discerning men, and lett us see wither their 
extraction and education have not bin vile, and 

16 Ibid., Vol. Ill, p. 136. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 201 

by what pretence of learning and vertue they 
could soe soon come into employments of so 
great trust and consequence .... let us see what 
spounges have suckt up the publique treasures, 
and wither it hath not bin privately contrived 
away by unworthy favorites and juggling par- 
asites whose tottering fortunes have been re- 
paired and supported at the publique charge." 

These evils were aggravated by excessive tax- 
ation. The government at Jamestown added 
each year something more to the great burden 
that the poor were bearing. With utter reck- 
lessness they appropriated large quantities of 
tobacco for the repairing of forts, for stores 
and ammunition, for the construction of ships, 
the support of ministers, the establishment of 
new industries, the building of towns, and for 
other purposes, in addition to the usual expenses 
of maintaining the government itself. On all 
sides the people protested with bitterness. They 
declared the taxes excessive and unnecessary, 
and in more than one instance the approach of 
the collectors precipitated a riot. The fact that 
much of the money was appropriated, not to the 
purposes to which it was intended, but to the 
private use of individuals, was galling in the 



202 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

extreme to the poor people of the colony. 16 
This abuse was especially notorious in the fort 
bill of 1672. The people of Charles City county 
declared after the Rebellion that large sums had 
been levied "for building and erecting forts 
which were never finished but suffered to go to 
ruine, the artillery buried in sand and spoyled 
with rust and want of care, the ammunition im- 
bezzled . . . . " They complained also of mis- 
management and fraud in connection with the 
bills passed for fostering manufacture in the 
colony. "Great quantities of tobacco have been 
raised on us," they said, "for building work 
houses and stoure houses and other houses for 
the propogating and encouragement of handi- 
craft and manufactury. . . .yet for want of due 
care the said houses were never finished or 
made useful .... and noe good ever effected 
.... save the particular profitt of the under- 
takers, who (as is usually in such cases) were 
largely rewarded for thus defrauding us." 

The expense of maintaining the Assembly it- 
self was very heavy. This body not only added 
to the distress of the people by its corrupt and 

16 Va. Maga. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. Ill, p. 38; p. 
136. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 203 

unwise legislation, but drained their resources 
by frequent and extended meetings, the cost of 
which was defrayed by taxation. The people 
of Surry county stated "that ye last Assembly 
(before the rebellion) continued many years 
and by their frequent meeting, being once every 
yeare, hath been a continuall charge and bur- 
then to the poore inhabitants of this collony; 
and that the burgesses of the said Assembly 
had 1501b tobacco p day for each member, they 
usually continueing there three or 4 weeks to- 
gither, did arise to a great some." 

This taxation would have been oppressive at 
any time, but coming as it did at a period when 
the colony was suffering severely from the Nav- 
igation Acts, and when the price of tobacco was 
so low that the smaller planters could hardly 
cultivate it with profit, the effect was crushing. 
The middle class during this period lost greatly 
in material prosperity. Many that had been 
well-to-do and happy before the Restoration, 
were reduced to poverty. 

Politically, however, the evils of this period 
proved finally to be of benefit to the middle 
class, for when their burdens had become un- 
bearable they rushed to arms and, striking out 



204 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

blindly at their oppressors, showed in no un- 
certain way that they would submit no longer 
to tyranny and injustice. It is true that Ba- 
con's Rebellion was put down amid the blood 
of those that were its chief promoters, but the 
fury and horror of that outburst were not for- 
gotten, and never again did governors or aris- 
tocracy drive to despair the commons of the 
colony by unjust taxation and arbitrary assump- 
tion of all power. Moreover, the misfortunes 
that preceded the Rebellion stirred in the 
breasts of the poor farmers a feeling of brother- 
hood, causing them to realize that their interests 
were common, and that by common action 
alone could they guard their interests. After 
1676 we find that the middle class had become 
a self-conscious body, watching jealously every 
action of the Council or of the governors and 
resisting with energy and success all measures 
that seemed to them detrimental to their inter- 
ests. 

The period from 1676 to 1700 was marked 
by the growth of the middle class both in ma- 
terial prosperity and in political power. It is 
true that the Navigation Acts were still in force 
and that the price of tobacco continued for a 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 205 

while so low that little profit could be made 
from it, but the people were no longer so de- 
pendent on the plant as in former times. The 
poor farmers had been forced by absolute ne- 
cessity to produce upon their own estates nearly 
all the articles necessary for their maintenance 
and comfort, and could no longer be put so com- 
pletely at the mercy of the English merchants. 
Although the attempts of the Assembly to es- 
tablish public industries proved futile, the end 
that had been held in view was in some measure 
attained by the petty manufacture upon the little 
plantations. The farmers' wives became ex- 
pert spinners and weavers and supplied them- 
selves and their husbands with coarse cloth suf- 
ficient for their humble needs. By planting less 
tobacco and more corn they could be sure of a 
plentiful supply of bread, while their cattle and 
hogs furnished them with milk and meat. The 
planting of apple or peach trees assured them 
not only fruit in abundance, but made it pos- 
sible for them to make cider or brandy that 
were excellent substitutes for imported liquors. 
Their furniture could be fashioned with their 
own hands, while, except in rare cases, even 
household utensils might be made upon the 



206 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

farm. Thus the small farmer to some extent 
prospered. 

Before the end of the 17th century it was 
rare indeed to find freemen in the colony living 
in poverty. There were none whose condition 
was at all comparable for misery and want to 
the vast body of paupers that crowded the Eng- 
lish cities and eked out an existence as laborers 
upon the farms. Robert Beverley, who wrote 
in 1705, called Virginia the best poor man's 
country in the world. He declared that the real 
poor class was very small, and even these were 
not servile. 17 As early as 1664 Lord Baltimore 
had written that it was evident and known 
that such as were industrious were not desti- 
tute. Although this was certainly an exaggera- 
tion, when applied to the period succeeding the 
Restoration, it became strictly true after Ba- 
con's Rebellion, when the people were no longer 
oppressed with burdensome taxation. Hugh 
Jones, writing during Governor Spotswood's 
administration, stated that the common planters 
lived in "pretty timber houses, neater than the 
farm houses are generally in England." 18 

17 Beverley's Virginia; Wm. & Mary Quar., Vol. 
VI, p. 9. 

18 Jones' Virginia. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 207 

"They are such lovers of riding - ," he adds, "that 
almost every ordinary person keeps a horse." 
So favorable were the conditions in which 
the small farmers found themselves that a fair, 
degree of prosperity was often obtained by 
them even though they were lacking in industry. 
Hugh Jones says, "The common planters lead- 
ing easy lives don't much admire labour, except 
horse-racing, nor diversion except cock-fight- 
ing, in which some greatly delight. This easy 
way of living, and the heat of the summer 
makes some very lazy, who are said to be 
climate-struck." 

The fourth period in the development of the 
middle class extends from 1700 to the Revolu- 
tion. It is marked by a split in the class, some 
of the small planters becoming wealthy, others 
failing to advance in prosperity, while still oth- 
ers degenerated, falling into abject poverty. 
This was almost entirely the result of the sub- 
stitution of slave labor for the labor of the in- 
dentured servant. The importation of negroes 
had begun early in the 17th century, but for 
many years their numbers were so few that the 
vast bulk of the work in the fields had been per- 
formed by white men. In 1625 there were 



208 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

about 465 white servants in Virginia and only 
22 negroes. 19 In 1649, when the population of 
the colony was 15,000, there were but 300 
slaves. 20 In 1671, Governor Berkeley stated 
that there were only 2,000 slaves in Virginia, 
although the population was at that date about 
40,000. 21 Near the end of the century, the 
number of negroes brought to the colony in- 
creased very much. The Royal African Com- 
pany, which had obtained the exclusive right to 
trade in slaves with the English possessions, 
stimulated this human traffic to such an ex- 
tent that negroes were soon found in every 
part of Virginia. By the year 1700 the num- 
ber of slaves was about 6,000. 22 The negroes 
proved more suited to the needs of the planters 
than the white servants, for they served for life, 
were docile and easy to manage, stood well 
the unhealthful conditions in the tobacco fields, 
and, most important of all, they cheapened 
vastly the cost of production. The wealthy 
planters who had for so many years been lim- 
ited in the amount of land they could place 

19 Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va., Vol. I, p. 572. 

50 Force, Hist. Tracts. 

71 Hening's Statutes, Vol. II, p. 515. 

32 Bruce, Econ. Hist, of Va., Vol. II, p. 108. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 209 

under cultivation by the number of servants 
they could procure, now found it possible to 
extend the scope of their operations. Before 
the end of the century such men as Byrd and 
Carter and Fitzhugh owned scores of slaves. 
It was this circumstance more than any thing 
else that accounts for the increased prosperity 
of the colony which is so noticeable during the 
first quarter of the 18th century. 23 

The more prosperous and capable members 
of the middle class shared to some extent the 
benefits resulting from negro labor. Many that 
had been unable to secure servants now "bought 
slaves and thus were able to increase very much 
the output of their plantations. The shortness 
of the time that the servants served, the great 
cost of transporting them to the colony and the 
risk of losing them by death or by flight, had 
made it impossible for the small farmers to use 
them in cultivating their fields. Since negro 
labor was not attended with these objections, 
many planters of humble means bought slaves 
and at one step placed themselves above the 
class of those that trusted to their own exer- 
tions in the tilling of their fields. When once 

23 Jones' Virginia. 



210 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

a start had been made, the advance of their 
prosperity was limited only by the extent of 
their ability and industry. Some became quite 
wealthy. Smythe, writing in 1773, stated that 
many of them formed fortunes superior to some 
of the first rank, despite the fact that their fam- 
ilies were not ancient or so respectable. 

Those members of the middle class who were 
unable, through poverty or incapacity, to share 
the prosperity of the early years of the 18th 
century were injured by the general use of 
slave labor in the colony. Since they could not 
purchase negroes, they were in a sense thrown 
into competition with them. The enormous in- 
crease in the production of tobacco brought 
down the price and made their single exertions 
less and less profitable. They were deprived of 
the privilege of working for wages, for no free- 
man could toil side by side with negroes, and 
retain anything of self-respect. Thus after the 
year 1700, the class of very poor whites became 
larger, and their depravity more pronounced. 24 
A Frenchman, travelling in Virginia at the time 
of the Revolution, testified that the condition of 

^Fiske, Old Va. and Her Neighbors, Vol. II, p. 
189. 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 211 

many white families was pitiful. "It is there," 
he said, "that I saw poor people for the first 
time since crossing the ocean. In truth, among 
these rich plantations, where the negro alone is 
unhappy, are often found miserable huts, in- 
habited by whites, whose wan faces and ragged 
clothes give testimony of their poverty." 25 It 
is certain that this class was never large, how- 
ever, for those that were possessed of the least 
trace of energy or ambition could move to the 
frontier and start life again on more equal 
terms. Smythe says that the real poor class in 
Virginia was less than anywhere else in the 
world. 

The introduction of slavery into the colony 
affected far more profoundly the character of 
the middle class farmer than it did that of the 
aristocrat. The indentured servants, upon 
whose labor the wealthy planters had relied 
for so many years, were practically slaves, be- 
ing bound to the soil and forced to obey im- 

25 Voyages dans l'Amerique Septentrionale, Vol. 
II, p. 142; "C'est-la que, depuis que j'ai passe les 
mers, j'ai vu pour la premiere fois des pauvres. En 
effet, parmi ces riches plantations ou le negre seul 
est malhereux, on trouve souvent de miserables caba- 
nes hibitees par des blancs, dont la figure have & 
1'habillement deguenille annoncent la pauvrete." 



212 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

plicitly those whom they served. The influence 
that their possession exerted in moulding the 
character of the aristocracy was practically the 
same as that of the negro slave. Both tended 
to instil into the master pride and the power of 
command. Since, however, but few members 
of the small farmer class at any time made use 
of servant labor, their character was not thus 
affected by them. Moreover, the fact that so 
many servants, after the expiration of their 
term of indenture, entered this class, tended 
to humble the poor planters, for they realized 
always the existence of a bond of fellowship be- 
tween themselves and the field laborers. When 
the negro slave had supplanted the indentured 
servant upon the plantations of the colony a 
vast change took place in the pride of the mid- 
dle class. Every white man, no matter how 
poor he was, no matter how degraded, could 
now feel a pride in his race. Around him on 
all sides were those whom he felt to be be- 
neath him, and this alone instilled into him a 
certain self-respect. Moreover, the immediate 
control of the negroes fell almost entirely into 
the hands of white men of humble means, for 
it was they, acting as overseers upon the large 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 213 

plantations, that directed their labors in the 
tobacco fields. This also tended to give to them 
an arrogance that was entirely foreign to their 
nature in the 17th century. All contempora- 
neous writers, in describing the character of the 
middle class in the 18th century, agree that their 
pride and independence were extraordinary. 
Smythe says, "They are generous, friendly, and 
hospitable in the extreme ; but mixed with such 
an appearance of rudeness, ferocity and 
haughtiness, which is, in fact, only a want of 
polish, occasioned by their deficiencies in edu- 
cation and in knowledge of mankind, as well as 
their general intercourse with slaves." Bev- 
erley spoke of them as being haughty and jeal- 
ous of their liberties, and so impatient of re- 
straint that they could hardly bear the thought 
of being controlled by any superior power. 
Hugh Jones, John Davis and Anbury also de- 
scribe at length the pride of the middle class in 
this century. 

Thus was the middle class, throughout the 
entire colonial period, forming and developing. 
From out the host of humble settlers, the over- 
flow of England, there emerged that body of 
small planters in Virginia, that formed the real 



214 THE MIDDLE CLASS 

strength of the colony. The poor laborer, the 
hunted debtor, the captive rebel, the criminal 
had now thrown aside their old characters and 
become well-to-do and respected citizens. They 
had been made over — had been created anew 
by the economic conditions in which they found 
themselves, as filthy rags are purified and 
changed into white paper in the hands of the 
manufacturer. The relentless law of the sur- 
vival of the fittest worked upon them with tell- 
ing force and thousands that could not stand 
the severe test imposed upon them by conditions 
in the New World succumbed to the fever of the 
tobacco fields, or quitted the colony, leaving to 
stronger and better hands the upbuilding of the 
middle class. On the other hand, the fertility 
of the soil, the cheapness of land, the ready sale 
of tobacco combined to make possible for all 
that survived, a degree of prosperity unknown 
to them in England. And if for one short pe- 
riod, the selfishness of the English govern- 
ment, the ambition of the governor of the col- 
ony and the greed of the controlling class 
checked the progress of the commons, the peo- 
ple soon asserted their rights in open rebellion, 
and insured for themselves a share in the gov- 



THE MIDDLE CLASS 215 

ernment and a chance to work out their own 
destiny, untrammelled by injustice and oppres- 
sion. At the outbreak of the Revolution, the 
middle class was a numerous, intelligent and 
prosperous body, far superior to the mass of 
lowly immigrants from which it sprang. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



Anbury, Major Thomas. — Travels Through the In- 
terior Parts of America in a series of Letters. Two 
Volumes. Printed for William Lane, Leadenhall 
Street, London, 1791. Major Anbury was a British 
officer who was captured at Saratoga and was 
brought south with the Convention Prisoners. He 
was paroled and had an opportunity to see much of 
Virginia. His observations upon the social life of 
the state are interesting, although tinged with 
prejudice. Viewing life in the New World with 
the eyes of one accustomed to the conventional 
ideas of England his writings throw light upon 
conditions in the Old Dominion that cannot be 
found in the works of native authors. 

Bagby, George W. — Selections from the Writings of. 
Whittet and Shepperson, Richmond, Va., 1884. 
Two volumes. The articles in this work touching 
on Virginia life are well worth the attention of the 
historian. Dr. Bagby traveled through many parts 
of the state and had an unsurpassed opportunity of 
becoming acquainted with this life. The style is 
pleasing and the stories entertaining. 

Barton, R. T. — Virginia Colonial Decisions. The 
Reports by Sir John Randolph and by Edward Bar- 
radall of the Decisions of the General Court of Vir- 
ginia, 1728-1741. Two volumes. The Boston Book 
Company, Boston. Accompanying the decisions is a 
prospective sketch of the contemporaneous con- 
ditions during the period covered and of the law- 
yers who practiced at the bar of the General 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 217 

Court in that day. In addition, the first volume 
contains an interesting account of the settling of 
Virginia and its history in the seventeenth century. 
Chapters are devoted to a description of the land, 
of the people, of the government, of the church, of 
the lack of cities, and of education. The chief 
value of the work, however, lies in the light that is 
thrown upon the history of Virginia during the 
years between 1728 and 1741, by the publication of 
the decisions which were before in manuscript 
form and practically inaccessible to the investiga- 
tor. 

Bernard, John. — Retrospections of America, 1797- 
1811. Harper and Brothers, New York, 1887. One 
volume. Bernard was famous in his time as a 
comedian and one of the earliest American man- 
agers of theatrical companies. He visited Vir- 
ginia in 1799 and made many excursions to the 
homes of the wealthy planters. He thus had an 
opportunity to see the inner life of the most re- 
fined class of the state. His descriptions of their 
manners and morals, their tastes, their hospitality 
and their love of out-of-door sports are interesting 
and usually accurate. 

Beverley, Robert.— The History and Present State 
of Virginia, in Four Parts. Printed for R. Parker, 
at the Unicorn, under the Piazza's of the Royal- 
Exchange, 1705. One volume. The work consists 
of an outline of the history of the colony from 1607 
to 1705; of a statement of the natural productions 
of Virginia; its industries and its facilities for 
trade; of an account of the Indians and a brief 
summary of the government at the time of publi- 
cation. The work is of value chiefly as a descrip- 
tion of Virginia at the beginning of the 18th cen- 



218 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

tury. In the account given of the history of the 
colony in the earlier days there are many errors. 

Brown, Alexander. — The Genesis of the United 
States. Two volumes. Houghton, Mifflin and 
Company, Boston and New York. This work con- 
sists of an account of the movement which re- 
sulted in the founding of Virginia, presented in 
the form of a series of documents not before 
printed, and of rare contemporaneous tracts re- 
issued for the first time. The author, in a later 
work, criticises The Genesis of the United States 
in the following words, "I did not fully under- 
stand the case myself. I had failed (as every 
one else had previously done) to give due con- 
sideration to the influence of imperial politics on 
the history of this popular movement. I had 
also failed to consider properly the absolute con- 
trol over the evidences, in print and in manu- 
script, possessed by the crown." The chief value 
of the work lies in the fact that it presents to the 
public numerous historical evidences which were 
for so many years inaccessible. 

The First Republic in America. One volume. 
Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston and New 
York. This work gives an account of the origin 
of the nation, written from the records long con- 
cealed in England. It not only is not based on 
the printed histories of the day, but expressly 
repudiates them as false and unjust, and as written 
in the interest of the Court Party. Much dis- 
credit is thrown upon the narratives of Capt. 
John Smith. The author says; "He never re- 
turned there (Virginia) and — if every one else 
had done exactly as he did, there would have 
remained no colonists in Virginia, but mountains 
of books in England, conveying incorrect ideas, 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 219 

and filled with a mass of vanity, 'excellent crit- 
icism' and 'good advice/ amounting really to 
nothing." In a later work Mr. Brown says of 
The First Republic in America; "I wrote from 
the point of the Patriot Party. It was the first 
effort to restore to our foundation as a nation 
the inspiring political features of which it was 
robbed by those who controlled the evidences and 
histories under the crown." 

English Politics in Early Virginia History. 
One volume. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 
Boston and New York. The book is divided into 
five parts. The First Part gives an outline of the 
efforts of the "Patriot Party" in England to plant 
popular government in America and of the Court 
Party to prevent. Part Two recites the effort of 
the Court to obliterate the true history of the 
origin of Virginia. In Part Three the author 
shows the influence of politics on the historic 
record while the crown retained control of the 
evidences. Part Four shows what has been done 
both towards correcting and to perpetuating the 
error. In the Fifth Part is given a review of 
some of the features of the struggle of the "Pa- 
triot Party" and the Court Party. 

Bruce, Philip Alexander. — Economic History of 
Virginia in the Seventeenth Century. Two vol- 
umes. Printed by the Macmillan Company, New 
York. This work treats of aboriginal Virginia, 
of the agricultural development after the coming 
of the English, the acquisition of title to land, 
the system of labor, the domestic economy of the 
planters, the part played by manufactures in the 
colony, the inconvenience occasioned by the 
scarcity of coin. The author has expended much 
labor in accumulating a mass of interesting and 



220 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

valuable detail, and the work is a veritable store 
house of information which is invaluable to the 
historian. There is no attempt made to point 
out the relation of the economic history of the 
time with the political, religious or social devel- 
opments that were taking place in the 17th cen- 
tury. The work is valuable chiefly as a source 
book. 

Social Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Cen- 
tury. One volume. Printed for the author by 
Whittet and Shepperson, Richmond, Va. In the 
first portion of this book the author attempts to 
explain in some detail the origin of the higher 
planters in the colony. A startling array of in- 
dividual cases are cited to prove the connection 
of at least a portion of this class with English 
families of education and rank. As usual with the 
author little attention is paid to generalizations 
and he arrives at his conclusions by induction 
rather than by deduction. Interesting chapters 
are devoted to social distinctions, social spirit, 
popular diversions, public and private occasions 
and duelling. 
Burke, John. — The History of Virginia from its 
First Settlement to the Present Day. Four 
volumes. Published in 1804. The chief value of 
this work lies in the fact that it contains a 
number of documents of great interest to the 
historian. Chief among these is a series of papers 
relating to the dispute over the Arlington, Cul- 
peper grant. As a general history of Virginia 
the work is antiquated. At the time Burke wrote 
a large part of the documents and pamphlets 
relating to the colony were inaccessible, and as 
a result he is compelled to pass over very im- 
portant periods with the most cursory mention. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 221 

Burnaby, Andrew. — Travels through the Middle 
Settlements in North America in the Years 1759 
and 1760; with Observations upon the State of 
the Colonies. Printed for T. Payne, at the Mews- 
Gate, London, 1798. One volume. Burnaby's 
criticisms of Virginia society are less accurate 
than those of others who have written on the 
same subject because his stay in the colony was 
so brief. He is by no means sympathetic with 
the life of the colony, chiefly because he does 
not understand it. 

Byrd, William.— The Writings of "Col. William 
Byrd of Westover in Virginia Esq." Edited by 
John Spencer Bassett. One volume. Doubleday, 
Page and Company, New York, 1901. Col. Byrd 
gives an interesting picture in this work of the 
life upon the frontier of the colony in the first 
quarter of the 18th century. The style is flow- 
ing and easy, and the author shows a literary 
talent unusual in colonial writers. The Intro- 
duction by the editor consists of a sketch of the 
Byrd family. This is ably written, and the obser- 
vations made upon Virginia politics and life show 
keen insight into the unique conditions that were 
moulding the character of the colony. It is, per- 
haps, a more valuable contribution to Virginia 
history than the writings which it introduces. 

Campbell, Charles. — History of the Colony and 
Ancient Dominion of Virginia. One volume. J. 
B. Lippincott and Company, Philadelphia, 1860. 
In his preface the author says: "Her (Virginia's) 
documentary history, lying, much of it, scattered 
and fragmentary, in part slumbering in the dusty 
oblivion of Trans-Atlantic archives, ought to be 
collected with pious care, and embalmed in the 



222 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

perpetuity of print." The partial accomplishment 
of this task, so urgently advocated by the author, 
has rendered his work incomplete and insufficient 
for the present day. Upon numerous periods of 
Virginia history barely touched by him, a great 
light has since been thrown by the unearthing 
of manuscripts and pamphlets. 

Chastellux, E. J. — Voyages dans l'Amerique Sep- 
tentrionale. Chez Prault, Imprimeur du Roi, 
Paris, 1786. Two volumes. Chastellux was a 
Frenchman who visited various parts of America 
at the time of the Revolution. His observations 
upon social life in Virginia are less prejudiced 
than those of many of the foreign visitors to 
the colony at this period. The work is valuable 
in that it gives the impressions made by the 
higher class in Virginia upon one used to the 
refined life of France in the second half of the 
18th century. 

Cooke, John Esten. — Virginia, a History of the 
People. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston, 
1884. One volume. So many valuable documents 
and pamphlets treating of Virginia history have 
been made accessible since this work was pub- 
lished, that it is quite antiquated. In addition, 
the author has failed to make the best use of the 
material at his hands, and there are numberless 
errors for which there can be no excuse. One 
wonders, when reading the book, whether the 
author has ever taken the trouble to glance at 
Hening's Statutes, for he repeats old mistakes 
that were pointed out by Hening one hundred 
years ago. The style is entertaining and has 
given to the work a popularity out of proportion 
to its historical worth. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 223 

Dinwiddie, Robert. — The Official Records of Robert 
Dinwiddie. Introduction and notes by R. A. 
Brock. Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, 
Va., 1883. Two volumes. A large number of 
manuscripts of various kinds relating to the 
administration of Dinwiddie have been printed 
for the first time in this work. Great light is 
thrown upon Braddock's disasterous expedition 
and other important events of the French and 
Indian War. Dinwiddie's account of the ob- 
stinacy and unreasonable conduct of the burgesses 
should be studied in conjunction with the journals 
of the House which have recently been published. 

Fiske, John. — Old Virginia and her Neighbors. 
Two volumes. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 
Boston and New York, 1897. This work is written 
in the delightful and entertaining style so char- 
acteristic of the author, and like Macaulay's 
History of England holds the interest of the 
reader from beginning to end. Only a portion 
of the colonial period is covered, and this in a 
general and hap-hazard way. The narrative is 
not equally sustained throughout, some periods 
being dwelt upon in much detail, and others, 
equally important, passed over with but 
cursory mention. Fiske did not have access to 
many of the sources of Virginia history, and this 
led him into repeating some old errors. 

Fithian, Philip Vickers. — Journal and Letters, 1767- 
1774. Edited for the Princeton Historical Asso- 
ciation, by John Rogers Williams. One volume. 
Fithian was tutor at Nomini Hall, the home of 
Col. Robert Carter, during the years 1773 and 
1774. His observations upon the life in the midst 
of which he was thrown, the life of the highest 



224 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

class of Virginians, are intensely interesting and 
very instructive. The author was a young 
theologian, who had received his education at 
Princeton, and who seemed strangely out of place 
in the gay society of aristocratic Westmoreland. 
For this very reason, however, his journal and 
letters are interesting, for he dwells with especial 
emphasis upon what was new or strange to him 
and has thus unconsciously given an excellent 
account of all that was unique or distinctive in 
the Virginia aristocracy. 

Force, Peter. — Tracts and other Papers, Relating 
Principally to the Origin, Settlement and Progress 
of the Colonies in North America. Printed in 
1836. Four volumes. By the preservation of 
these valuable documents Mr. Force has done a 
great service to the history of the colony of 
Virginia. The papers relating to Bacon's Rebel- 
lion are of especial interest, while Virginia's 
Cure, A Description of New Albion and Leah 
and Rachel are hardly less important. 

Goodwin, Maud Wilder. — The Colonial Cavalier or 
Southern Life before the Revolution. Lowell, 
Coryell and Company, New York, 1894. One 
volume. This little work is well written and 
is in the main accurate. It offers an interesting 
picture of the Southern planter and the unique 
life that he led in the second half of the 18th 
century. 

Hening, W. W. — The Statutes at Large; Being a 
Collection of all the Laws of Virginia, from the 
First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619. 
In thirteen volumes covering the period up to 
October, 1792. In 1836 Samuel Shepherd published 
three more volumes, covering the period from 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 225 

1792 to 1806. In addition to the collection of 
laws the work contains many historical documents 
of great value. The Statutes at Large are in- 
valuable to the student of Virginia history and 
they throw much light upon periods otherwise 
obscured in gloom. It is to Hening chiefly that 
the historian is indebted for his knowledge of the 
years covered by the first administration of Sir 
William Berkeley, while his information of what 
occurred during the Commonwealth Period would 
be slight indeed without The Statutes at Large. 
Since the Journals of the House of Burgesses have 
been copied, and thus made available to the 
investigator, the work is not so indispensable for 
some periods, but it constitutes a valuable adjunct 
to these papers and no historian can afford to 
neglect them. The work shows throughout the 
greatest care even in the minutest details and 
will remain a monument to the indefatigable 
energy and patience of Mr. Hening. 

Howe, Henry.— Historical Collections of Virginia; 
containing a collection of the most interesting 
facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, 
etc., relating to its history and antiquaries, etc. 
One volume. Published by Babcock and Com- 
pany, 1845. In his preface the author says: "The 
primary object of the following pages is to 
narrate the most prominent events in the history 
of Virginia, and to give a geographical and sta- 
tistical view of her present condition." In 
accomplishing the latter of these tasks Mr. Howe 
has done a real and lasting service to the history 
of the state. His description of the various 
counties in 1843 and the life of their people was 
the fruit of personal observation and as a con- 
sequence is usually accurate and trustworthy. 



226 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Howison, Robert R. — A History of Virginia, from 
its Discovery and Settlement by Europeans to 
the Present Time. Two Volumes. Carey and 
Hart, Philadelphia, 1846. The preface of the 
work has the following: "In writing the Colonial 
History, the author has endeavored to draw from 
the purest fountains of light the rays which he 
has sought to shed upon his subject." And 
throughout the book there is abundant evidence 
to show that Mr. Howison had studied the sources 
of Virginia history then available and had picked 
out as best he could the truth whenever his 
authorities differed. So much has been learned 
of the events he treats since 1846, however, that 
his work is today of little value. 

Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and 
Political Science. The Johns Hopkins Press, 
Baltimore. A number of these studies touch 
upon colonial Virginia history and they have done 
much in bringing order out of the mass of facts 
to be found in old books, in documents and in 
journals. Some of the papers are: "Justice in 
Colonial Virginia, O. P. Chitwood; History of 
Suffrage in Virginia, J. A. C. Chandler; Repre- 
sentation in Virginia, J. A. C. Chandler; White 
Servitude in the Colony of Virginia, H. R. Mc- 
Ilwaine, and Virginia Local Institutions, Edward 
Ingle. 

Jones, Hugh. — The Present State of Virginia. 
Printed for J. Clark, at the Bible under the 
Royal-Exchange, 1724. Reprinted for Joseph 
Sabin, New York. This work gives an enter- 
taining and valuable picture of Virginia during 
the administration of Governor Spotswood. Those 
chapters are most useful which treat of the pur- 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 227 

i 

suits, the religion, the manners and the govern- 
ment of the colonists. The descriptions given are 
drawn largely from the personal observations of 
the author. This, together with the sincere and 
straightforward manner in which the book is 
written, leaves the impression of accuracy and 
trustworthiness. 

Journals of the Council of Virginia as Upper House. 
Manuscript copies made of incomplete records 
in the State Library at Richmond, in the Library 
of the Virginia Historical Society. Arranged in 
three volumes as follows: I, 1685-1720; II, 1722- 
1747; III, 1748-1767. These journals are by no 
means so important as those of the House of 
Burgesses. They are devoted quite largely to 
routine matters and reflect but little of the 
political life of the colony. The historian, if he 
gives careful study to their pages, will be rewarded 
by passages here and there which draw aside the 
veil, and give fleeting pictures of the strife between 
the Council and the Burgesses. 

Journals of the House of Burgesses. — In the State 
Library. Session of 1619; manuscript copies of 
sessions from 1680 to 1718, and from 1748 to 1772. 
These journals, so many of which have been 
buried for centuries in English archives, throw a 
flood of light upon the political life of the colony. 
They constitute by far the most important source 
of information upon the long and tireless struggle 
of the middle class in Virginia for a share in 
the conducting of the government. Something 
of this, of course, may be gleaned from the 
official correspondence of the governors, but this 
evidence is partisan in spirit and does injustice 
to the commons of Virginia. Hening gives in 



228 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

the main only bare statutes, and the discussions, 
the quarrels and the passions of the sessions are 
omitted. The journals are to Hening's work what 
the living person is to the stone image. It is a 
matter of the deepest regret that the journals 
from 1619 to 1680 are missing, for they leave a 
gap in Virginia history that it is impossible to 
fill. 

Keith, Sir William.— The History of the British 
Plantations in America. Part One contains the 
History of Virginia. Printed by S. Richardson, 
London, 1738. The work is devoted almost en- 
tirely to the colony under the London Company. 
It contains little of value, following John Smith's 
account throughout and presenting nothing new 
either of documentary evidence or of criticism. 

Long, Charles M. — Virginia County Names, Two 
Hundred and Seventy Years of Virginia History. 
The Neale Publishing Co., New York. This little 
volume throws much light upon the history of 
Virginia through the record left in the names of 
the counties. The work contains several valuable 
tables. One of these gives the governors of 
Virginia from 1607 to 1908. 

McDonald Papers. — Copies of Papers in Brit. Rec. 
Office. Virginia State Library, Richmond. There 
were seven volumes of these documents, but two 
of them have been missing for many years. Vol. 
I covers the years from 1619 to 1626; Vol. II 
from 1627 to 1640; Vols. Ill and IV are missing; 
Vol. V from 1675 to 1681; Vol. VI from 1681 to 
1685; Vol. VII from 1683 to 1695. This collection 
contains many papers that are to be found in 
Sainsbury, but they are usually more full, being 
often exact copies of the originals. In addition 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 229 

there are many papers in the McDonald collection 
not to be found elsewhere. 
Maury, Richard L-— The Huguenots in Virginia. 
Col. Maury in this work has rendered an impor- 
tant service to Virginia history. On every page 
are evidences of the utmost care for truth and 
the greatest diligence in reaching it. Col. Maury 
made, before writing this book, a thorough study 
of the sources of Virginia history and the accuracy 
of his work reflects this labor. 

Maxwell, William.— The Virginia Historical Reg- 
ister. Printed by Macfarlane and Ferguson, 
Richmond. In six volumes. This work is one 
of the fruits of the revival of interest in Virginia 
history which took place in the two decades pre- 
ceding the Civil War. It contains many papers 
and documents printed for the first time, and no 
student of colonial history can afford to neglect it. 

Meade, William.— Old Churches, Ministers and 
Families of Virginia. J. B. Ljppincott and Co., 
Philadelphia. Two volumes. The title does not 
indicate all, nor the most valuable part, of the 
contents of this work. In addition to giving 
numerous facts in regard to the old churches and 
their ministers and congregations, the author has 
presented an ecclesiastical history of Virginia. 
The contest of the vestries with the governors 
to obtain and to keep control of the church, is 
carefully and ably set forth. Also, the relation 
of this struggle to the political life of the colony 
is kept constantly in sight. The appendix con- 
tains several papers relating to church affairs that 
are invaluable to the historian. 

Miller, Flmer I.— The Legislature of the Province 
of Virginia. One volume. The Columbia Uni- 



230 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

versity Press. The Macmillan Co., Agents. This 
work is but the assembling and arranging of 
numerous facts in regard to the General Assembly. 
It presents no new thoughts, it teaches no lessons 
in Virginia history, it settles none of the old 
problems, it presents no new ones. Unfortunately, 
also, the author did not have access to a large 
number of the journals of the House of Bur- 
gesses, which, it need hardly be added, are in- 
dispensable for an exhaustive study of the 
Assembly. 

Neill, Edward D. — Virginia Vetusta, during the 
Reign of James I. Joel Munsell's Sons, Albany, 

1885. The value of this work lies in the printing 
of numerous documents throwing light on the 
affairs of the colony under the London Company. 
Mr. Neill takes the ground that John Smith's 
narratives are not to be trusted, and he has made 
a long step towards correcting the errors con- 
tained in the works of that writer. 

Virginia Carolorum: The Colony under the Rule 
of Charles the First and Second A. D. 1625- 
A. D. 1685, based upon manuscripts and docu- 
ments of the period. Joel Munsel's Sons, Albany, 

1886. Mr. Neill has been, with some justice, called 
the scavenger of Virginia history. In Virginia 
Carolorum he has gathered many papers and docu- 
ments which are bitterly hostile to the colony, and 
represent it in a light far from attractive. As, 
however, it is the duty of the historian to present 
truth, no matter whether pleasant or disagreeable, 
this volume is of undoubted value. Its chief fault 
lies in the author's failure to point out the prej- 
udices of some of those writers that are quoted, 
thus leaving the reader to give to their state- 
ments more weight than they can justly claim. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 231 

Page, Thomas Nelson. — The Old Dominion her 
Making and her Manners. Charles Scribner's 
Sons, New York, 1908. This work consists of a 
series of essays, in part addresses delivered before 
various societies at different times. It is written 
in the delightful style for which Dr. Page is so 
well known and is as entertaining as Fiske's The 
Old Dominion and her Neighbors. Perhaps the 
most valuable chapter is that devoted to Colonial 
Life. 

The Old South, Essays Social and Political. 
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1892. This 
work consists of a series of well written articles 
upon anti-bellum Virginia. Among these are 
Glimpses of Life in Colonial Virginia, The Old 
Virginia Lawyer, and the Negro Question. Dr. 
Page's intimate knowledge of the life upon the 
plantation makes him peculiarly well qualified to 
write a book of this nature. 

Perry, William Stevens. — Papers Relating to the 
History of the Church in Virginia, 1650-1776. 
Printed in 1870. One volume. This collection 
of manuscripts is invaluable to the historian. Some 
of the papers have been preserved in other works, 
but many are to be had here only. The docu- 
ments relating to the controversy between the 
vestries and the governors for control of the 
appointing of ministers are of great importance. 
Not only do these papers give much information 
upon the ecclesiastical history of the colony, but 
they throw light that cannot be gotten elsewhere 
upon political conditions. 

Sainsbury, Noel W— Papers. Twenty manuscript 
volumes in the Virginia State Library. These 
papers are chiefly copies in abstract of the official 



232 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

correspondence of the home government, and the 
governors and secretaries of Virginia. They cover 
the long period from the founding of the colony 
until the year 1730. The letters of the governors 
to the Lords of Trade and Plantations are often 
quite frank and give the student an insight into 
their purposes and their methods that can be 
gained from no other source. They should be 
studied in connection with the Journals of the 
House of Burgesses, for they will make clear 
many points that are purposely left obscure in the 
transactions of the Assembly. It is a matter for 
regret that the papers are but abstracts and the 
State of Virginia should have exact copies made 
of the originals. 

Sale, Edith Tunis. — Manors of Virginia in Colonial 
Times. One volume. J. B. Lippincott Co., 1909. 
This work contains accounts of no less than 
twenty-four manors, including in the list Shirley, 
Westover, Brandon, Rosewell, Monticello, Guns- 
ton Hall, etc. The descriptions of the houses are 
made more vivid and entertaining by sketches of 
the families that occupied them. The volume is 
rich in illustrations. 

Smith, Capt. John. — Works of, edited by Edward 
Arber. On Montague Road, Birmingham, England, 
1884. Capt. Smith's account of the settling of 
Jamestown and the struggle of the colonists there 
was for many years accepted without cavil by 
historians. His story of his own heroism and 
of the wickedness of his colleagues has been 
embodied in almost every American school history. 
Mr. Charles Dean, in 1860, was the first to question 
Smith's veracity, and since that date many his- 
torians have taken the ground that his works 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 233 

are quite unreliable. Alexander Brown has con- 
tended that his account of Virginia was purposely 
falsified to further the designs of the Court Party 
during the reign of James I. The discovery of 
numerous documents relating to the years covered 
by Smith's histories, and the application of his- 
torical criticism to his work, cannot but incline 
the student to distrust much that he has written. 

Spotswood, Alexander. — The Official Letters of. 
Edited by R. A. Brock. Virginia Historical 
Society. Two volumes. These letters are of 
great value, for they touch upon the most im- 
portant events of Spotwood's administration. They 
present, of course, the governor's views upon 
public matters, and must be studied in conjunc- 
tion with other evidence for a just understand- 
ing of the times. This, fortunately, is to be had 
in various manuscripts, in the Journals of the 
House of Burgesses, the Journals of the Council 
and in scattered papers, some of which have 
been printed. 

Stanard, Mary Newton. — The Story of Bacon's 
Rebellion. The Neale Publishing Co., 1907. One 
volume. The authoress has had before her in 
this work the general interest that attaches to the 
picturesque subject and has written in a light and 
pleasing style. No deep analysis of the causes 
and results of the Rebellion are given, but the 
reader has the feeling throughout that the facts 
presented have been gathered with great care and 
that the narrative is as accurate as labor and 
research can make it. 

Stanard, William G. and Mary Newton. — The 
Colonial Virginia Register. Joel Munsell's Sons, 
Albany, 1902. This work contains the names of 



234 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

the Governors of Virginia in the Colonial Period, 
the Secretaries of State, the Auditors General, the 
Receivers General, the Treasurers, the Attorneys 
General, the Surveyors General, the Council mem- 
bers, the members of the House of Burgesses 
and the members of the Conventions of 1775 and 
1776. 

Stith, William.— The History of the First Dis- 
covery and Settlement of Virginia. William Parks, 
Williamsburg, 1747. Stith had in the preparation 
of this work access to some manuscripts which 
are not now in existence. For this reason the 
work will retain a certain value as a source book 
of Virginia history. In the main, however, he 
follows Smith's story with servility, for it did 
not occur to him that much of the latter was 
not trustworthy. Stith takes his history no further 
than the year 1624. 

The Lower Norfolk County Virginia Antiquary. 
Press of the Friedenwald Co., Baltimore. Five 
volumes. This magazine has rendered a true 
service to Virginia history by publishing many 
valuable documents hitherto hidden or inaccessible. 
These papers touch Virginia life in the Colonial 
Period in many phases and throw light on points 
hitherto obscure or misunderstood. 

The Southern Literary Messenger. — In 1845 and in 
the years immediately following, this magazine, 
stimulated by the great interest that was being 
shown in Virginia history at that time, published 
a number of documents and articles relating to 
colonial times. Among these is a reproduction of 
John Smith's True Relation; papers relating to 
Sir William Berkeley, contributed by Peter Force; 
and an account of the General Assembly of 1715. 



. BIBLIOGRAPHY 235 

The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 
— Published by the Virginia Historical Society. 
Seventeen volumes. The wealth of material con- 
tained in these volumes can hardly be estimated. 
Countless papers, formerly scattered abroad, or 
hidden in the musty archives of libraries, have 
been published and rendered accessible to the 
historian. So vastly important are they that no 
account of colonial Virginia, no matter of what 
period, can afford to neglect them. They touch 
every phase of the life of the colony, political, 
social, economic and religious. Much space has 
been given to biography. From the standpoint 
of the constructive historian it is to be regretted 
that the magazine has devoted so little of its 
space to short articles culling and arranging and 
rendering more serviceable the facts published in 
documentary form. But the magazine has done 
and is still doing a work of vast importance in 
collecting and preserving historical material. 

Tyler, Lyon G. — Narratives of Early Virginia, 1606- 
1625. Charles Scribner's Sons. One volume. 
This work includes many important and interest- 
ing papers of the period of the London Company. 
Selections are made from Capt. John Smith's 
works. Among the papers given are Observations 
by Master Geo. Percy; The Relation of the Lord 
De-La-Ware; Letter of Don Diego de Molina; 
Letter of Father Pierre Biard; Letter of John 
Rolfe; and The Virginia Planters' Answer to 
Capt. Butler. 

Williamsburg, the Old Colonial Capital. Whittet 
and Shepperson, Richmond. An account is given 
of the settlement and history of the town. This 
is followed by a brief description of Bruton church 



236 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

and its ministers and by a long chapter on the 
college. Other chapters are devoted to the 
capitol, the governors' house, the State prison, 
the powder magazine, the theatre, the Raleigh 
Tavern, the printing office, the jail, the court- 
houses, the hospital for the insane, etc. 

The Cradle of the Republic: Jamestown and 
James River. Whittet and Shepperson, Richmond. 
The author has described carefully and minutely 
the village, locating, when possible, public build- 
ings and the homes of the inhabitants. The last 
chapter is devoted to the places along the river 
and interesting accounts are given of their origin 
and their history. 

Virginia Historical Society. — Abstract of the Pro- 
ceedings of the Virginia Company of London, 
1619-1624, prepared from the records in the Library 
of Congress by Conway Robinson and edited by 
R. A. Brock. Two volumes. Since the infant 
colony at Jamestown was so intimately connected 
with the great company which gave it life that 
the one cannot be understood without a knowledge 
of the other, this publication of the proceedings 
of the company is of great importance to a correct 
understanding of early Virginia history. 

Miscellaneous Papers. Edited by R. A. Brock, 
1887. On volume. This collection contains the 
Charter of the Royal African Company; A Report 
on the Huguenot Settlement, 1700; Papers of Geo. 
Gilmer, of Pen Park; and other valuable papers. 

Proceedings of the Society at the Annual Meet- 
ing Held in 1891, with Historical Papers Read 
on the Occasion, and Others. Edited by R. A. 
Brock. One Volume. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 237 

William and Mary Quarterly. — Edited by Dr. Lyon 
G. Tyler. Williamsburg, Va. Seventeen volumes. 
This magazine is devoted to the history of 
Virginia and has published numerous papers 
relating to that subject. Great space has been 
devoted to biography and much light has been 
thrown upon the ancestry of scores of families. 
Of great value are a number of articles giving in 
condensed and clear form the results of study of 
the new material brought forth. Thus there is a 
paper upon Education in Colonial Virginia, an- 
other on Colonial Libraries, etc. The magazine, 
like the Virginia Magazine of History and Biog- 
raphy, has rendered an invaluable service to Vir- 
ginia history. 



Thomas J. Wertenbaker was born at Char- 
lottesville, Va., Feb. 6, 1879. After receiving 
his primary education at private schools he en- 
tered Jones' University School. Later he at- 
tended the Charlottesville Public High School. 
In the fall of 1896 he entered the Academic De- 
partment of the University of Virginia, where 
he remained as a student until 1900. During 
the session of 1900-1901, he taught at St. 
Matthew's School, of Dobbs Ferry, N. Y. In 
September, 1901, he re-entered the University 
of Virginia and in 1902 received the degrees of 
Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts. For 
some years after this he was engaged in news- 
paper work, being editor of the Charlottesville 
Morning News and editor on the Baltimore 
News. In the fall of 1906 he re-entered the 
University of Virginia as a graduate student. 
In 1907 he was elected Associate Professor of 
History and Economics at the Texas Agricul- 
tural and Mechanical College and filled that po- 
sition for two sessions. In 1909 he was made 
Instructor of History at the University of Vir- 
ginia and once more matriculated in the Grad- 

238 



uate Department of that institution. He is a 
member of the American Historical Associa- 
tion and the Virginia Historical Society and is 
the author of several historical articles and es- 
says. 



239 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



012 200 748 A 




